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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [707r] (1430/1814)
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
365
massive relics still surviving of a truly royal rule. Here, beyond
doubt, the victorious monarch used occasionally to reside, and here
he left perhaps the most striking and permanent among the many
visible memorials of his zeal for public works and architectural
splendour, that are still to be found scattered amid the mountains
and valleys of South Persia. From this time forward, Shushter,
elevated by the engineering works of Shapur into a strategical
post of capital importance, continued to play a prominent part in
history. At the time of the Arab invasion its inhabitants made a
stout resistance, until betrayed by one of their own number.
Profiting by this experience, when the next or Tartar wave of
invasion beat against their gates, the Shushteris yielded to the
power, and were the recipients of the clemency of Timur, who is
even said to have repaired the dyke of alerian. Half a century
earlier, the Moorish pilgrim Ibn Batutah had thus described the
city: ‘ On the first of the mountains there is a large and beautiful
city, abounding with fruits and rivers, surrounded by a river known
by the name of El Azrak, the Blue.’ Later on, under the Sefavi
dynasty, the town became a great centre of the Shiah propaganda,
and a hotbed of religious fanaticism. It continued to be the capital
of a province and the seat of government until the early part of
the present century, when it was the residence of Mohammed Ali
Mirza, son of Fath Ali Shah, and Governor-General of Kerman-
shah, Luristan, and Arabistan, at which time it is reported, though
probably without truth, to have contained 45,000 souls. Depopu
lated, and all but destroyed by a severe plague in 1831-2, which
carried off nearly 20,000 souls, and attacked by the cholera after
wards, it Was superseded as the provincial capital by Dizful, and
has never rallied since.
The most conflicting estimates have been given of its numbers
by different travellers. In 1836, Chesney reported it to contain
5,000 to 6,000 houses and 20,000 inhabitants. In the
same year, Bawlinson returned the numbers as 15,000.
In 1841, De Bode calculated the total as from 4,000 to 5,000,
while in the following year Selby gave 8,000, and Layard 10,000
as the probable figure. At the present time, though it has again
become the capital, the population is estimated as not more than
8,000, and these are spread over an extent of ground that would
accommodate five times that number, but is little else than an in
discriminate pile of ruins. In a country remarkable for its dead
Population
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 [707r] (1430/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x00001f> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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