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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [698v] (1413/1814)
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.
348
PERSIA
the physical condition of the neighbouring country. Both on the
right and left banks passages and tunnels have been cut in the
rock at the water level, in which water-wheels originally, and in
the case of some on the left bank, still revolve. There are also to
be seen in the neighbourhood of the town a large number of old
circular mill-stones, which were used for the grinding of flour and
the crushing of the sugar-cane. It is not known when or how
the bund was destroyed, though the elate may probably be assigned
to the thirteenth century, when we read that the prosperity of the
town and neighbourhood fell into utter decay. At the discussion
before the Society of Arts General Schindler mentioned a local
legend, which attributed the disaster to the wicked machinations
of a mediaeval sugar merchant, who cornered the market; but
after a time, when the price had risen and he opened his bags,
found them lull, not of sugar, but of scorpions, whose tails were
so sharp that they cut a thick felt carpet in two. Such myriads
of these scorpions came out that the people fled, and have never
returned . 1
It is the twofold rapid racing through the gaps left by the
destruction of the bund that has ever since constituted the mam
Main rapid obstacle to the continuous navigation of the Karim.
Ihe main channel is the aperture between the right
bank, which is steep and lofty, and the first rocky islet in the
cm lent, the passage varying from fifty to eighty yards in width
according to the condition of the water, and there being an
approximate fall of thiee feet in a distance of fifty yards. Between
the islets and the main section of the sandstone ledge which dams
the rest of the stieam is a second and narrower rapid. Through
both these gateways there was a swift and noisy rush of water—I
can haidly call it a cataract, for it was not comparable to the
headlong sweep of the Great Bab at the First Cataract of the Nile.
It was by the larger or western channel that Selby took up the
‘ Assyria,’ with Sir H. Bayard on board, in March 1842. She
was a paddle-wheel steamer, 100 feet long. They passed the lower
lapids without difficulty, the river being full and the ledges com
pletely concealed. Twice did Selby attempt to force the main
lapid by steam alone, but the force of the current, running at the
rate of o to miles an hour, turned the ‘ Assyria ’ completely
1 Two other versions of the tale are mentioned by De Bode (Travels in Luristan,
vol. ii. p. 154).
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 [698v] (1413/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x00000e> [accessed 11 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