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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [708r] (1432/1814)
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 KAEUN RIVER
367
Another remarkable feature of the place, not, however, visible
from the exterior, is the almost universal construction of shabedans,
or shevedans, 1 underground chambers hewn deep down in
the rock upon which the city stands, ventilated by shafts
Cellars
conducting to the upper air. Almost every house is so provided ;
and one of these cellars that was shown to me, newly hollowed out
beneath the Governor’s palace, had been excavated to a depth of at
least sixty feet below the surface, access to it being gained by a
steep flight of steps, and light as well as air being admitted by a
circular orifice in the vaulted rock-roof. In the months of July
and August, when the heat is appalling, the inhabitants live almost
entirely in these subterranean chambers, seldom stirring between
9 a.m. and sunset; and at such times the town becomes even more
than ordinarily a necropolis in brick and stone.
The trade of Shushter is equally inconsiderable with the agri
cultural development of its surrounding lands. Though possessed
of a soil admirably adapted to the growth of opium, but
Trade and
manufac- little enterprise is shown in its cultivation, and only
tures
twenty or thirty cases are said to be exported annually to
the Arabian coast and Muscat. Indigo is grown in some quantity
outside the town, and is responsible for a predominant tone of blue
in the costumes of both sexes. Selby, in 1842, though reporting
the local trade as small, lamented that nearly all the cottons,
woollens, chintzes, cutlery, hardware, and sugar were supplied by
Russia, notwithstanding a long and tedious land-carriage from
Isfahan. 2 Whatever may have been the case fifty years ago, I
found that Russian ascendency had now completely ceased, there
being few, if any, Russian articles in the town, and the European
import trade consisting almost entirely of English or Indian goods,
brought from Busrah either via Amarah on the Tigris and Dizful,
or by Mohammerah and the Karun river. The sole local manu
factures appear to be a species of bright-coloured carpet or matting,
made of cotton and wool, and a felt of coarse pattern. The bazaar,
which was once the largest in Khuzistan, consists only of two
diminutive alleys crossing each other under a dome, of the stalls
before alluded to, and of one or two open booths, with a roof
1 Elsewhere in Persia they are called serdabs, literally ‘ cold water.’ Layard
says they are known in Shushter as shadreivan {Early Adventures, vol. ii. p. 43) ;
but this is a mistake.
2 Journal of the B.G.S., vol. xiv. pp. 234, 242.
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 [708r] (1432/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000021> [accessed 22 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