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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [693r] (1402/1814)
The record is made up of 2 volumes with inserts (898 folios). It was created in 1892-1924. It was written in English, Urdu and German. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
THE KARUN RIVER
341
operations could not be said as yet to have begun; the second
became an excuse for protracted delays, caused by a dutiful reference
to official superiors; while the third offered a boundless field for
meddlesome and nonsensical activity. It did not argue a high
level of practical intelligence to insist that the import duty upon
foreign merchandise should be levied on the price, whatever it might
be, that the article would fetch at the moment in the local bazaar.
But commercial law did not happen to be the forte of the Karguzar.
On this occasion he was very much interested in myself and my
future movements. He had already complained of the steamer
being detained on my account; and had peremptorily ordered it,
quite ultra vires, to quit. A series of messages now passed, the
Karguzar requiring my passport, which had not once been asked
for during three months of previous travel in Persia, and finally
bidding me to call upon him at sunrise before starting next
morning. This I felt myself quite unable to do ; and leaving him
to devise fresh toils for the bird that had flown, our steamer
weighed anchor at 6 a.m. and started up the river.
Some two miles above Mohammerah, and, therefore, three miles
from the mouth of the Haffar, we come to the Bahmeshir (deriva-
Bahmeshir tion disputed ), 1 or alternative channel, by which a portion
Channel q£ Hie waters of the Karun still enter, and the whole,
in all probability, once entered, the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. It runs in a
line from north-west to south-east, parallel with the Shat-el-Aiab,
for a total length of over forty miles, and flows into the sea by a
wide mouth at a distance of several miles from the embouchure of
the estuary. Along its shores, as on those of the Shat-el-Aiab
near Busrah, are to be seen screens of reeds planted at low water
level, in order to catch the fish which are left in great numbers on
the muddy banks when the tide retires. In ancient times the
Bahmeshir was the eastern mouth of the I ignis, and the Shat-el-
Arab the western. The island enclosed between them, the Haffai,
and the sea, is the Dilmun of the cuneiform inscriptions, and the
Persian Mian-i-Rudan, i.e. Between the Rivers, or Mesopotamia . 2
1 Some spell it Bahr-el-Mashir (Sea of Mashir ?). But the name is probably
a contraction of Bahman Ardeshir, to whom are attributed many works in these
parts. The district on the lower Tigris was called Khorah Shad Bahman, the
maritime border Bah nr an Ardeshir.
2 It was also called Muharzi, from the port of Muharzeh at the north end of
the island. Yakut descrrbed it as a triangle, with the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
as base, and
the two mouths of the Dijleh (Tigris) as sides.
About this item
- Content
These two volumes are George Curzon's own personal annotated copies of both volumes of his book Persia and the Persian Question , which was published in 1892. Alongside the volumes are various loose papers relating to Persia [Iran], consisting of the following: received correspondence; newspaper cuttings; publishers' press releases; cuttings from various booksellers' catalogues; various journal and magazine articles; two items of printed official British correspondence; several prints of photographs and sketches; and a few handwritten notes by Curzon.
In most cases these papers, which range in date from 1892 to 1924, relate to the chapters in the book where they were originally inserted, suggesting that they were kept by Curzon with the intention of using them to inform a revised edition of the book.
Of particular note among the small amount of correspondence are two letters received by Curzon in 1914 and 1915 from retired schoolmaster and Islamic scholar Sayyid Mazhar Hasan Musawi of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India (ff 5-9 and ff 44-53). These letters, which are written in Urdu and are accompanied by English translations, discuss in detail several inaccuracies found in the Urdu version of Persia and the Persian Question .
The various prints of photographs and sketches, which were originally inserted into volume two, are of different locations in the Gulf region. Several of these appear to have been produced in preparation for the publication of the second volume of John Gordon Lorimer's Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Oman and Central Arabia (i.e. the 'Geographical and Statistical' section) in 1908, as they are identical to the versions found in that volume.
Also of note among the loose papers are an illustrated article from Country Life dated 5 June 1920, entitled 'The People of Persia' (ff 36-37), and a printed family tree of the Shah of Persia [Aḥmad Shah Qājār], produced in preparation of his visit to Britain in 1919 (f 233).
Volume one of Persia and the Persian Question contains a map of Persia, Afghanistan and Beluchistan [Balochistan], which is folded inside the front cover (f 1).
The German language material consists of a publisher's press release for two books authored by German archaeologist Ernst Emil Herzfeld (ff 29-30).
- Extent and format
- 2 volumes with inserts (898 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: this shelfmark consists of two physical volumes. The foliation sequence commences at the first folio of volume one (1-463), and terminates at the last folio of volume two (ff 464-898); these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Each volume contains a large number of loose leaves, which have been foliated in the order that they were inserted into the volume; for conservation reasons, these loose folios have been removed from the volume and stored separately. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers of the two volumes.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English, Urdu and German in Latin and Arabic script View the complete information for this record
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [693r] (1402/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000003> [accessed 6 June 2026]
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/33
- Title
- Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Questionby George Curzon, with Inserted Papers
- Pages
- 54r:135v, 147r:149v, 158r:180v, 183r:221v, 224r:224v, 227r:246v, 248r:257v, 259r:260v, 268r:362v, 364r:364v, 367r:388v, 390r:400v, 402r:416v, 419r:432v, 434r:444v, 448r:462v, 464r:471v, 475r:481v, 483r:513v, 516r:525v, 527r:544v, 546r:563v, 566r:598v, 600r:622v, 624r:656v, 658r:665v, 667r:675v, 678r:684v, 687r:688v, 691r:691v, 693r:693v, 695r:708v, 711r:721v, 724r:726v, 728r:729v, 731r:736v, 742r:742v, 746r:757v, 759r:761v, 763r:763v, 765r:765v, 772r:777v, 780r:789v, 793r:794v, 797r:809v, 811r:821v, 825r:840v, 843r:898v
- Author
- Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
- Usage terms
- Public Domain