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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [724r] (1464/1814)
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.
to have traded with India. At times, indeed, in the pages of Persian
history we come across ludicrous, because unconscious, examples
of the terror of the marine element that is common to that people.
In April 1442, one Abdur Rezak being sent on a mission from
Shah Rukh, the grandson of Timur, to an Indian king, weighed
anchor from Ormuz. The unwilling voyager has left the following
delightful account of his sensations :—
As soon as I caught the smell of the vessel and all the terrors of
the sea presented themselves before me, I fell into so deep a swoon that
for three days respiration alone indicated that life remained within me.
When I came a little to myself, the merchants cried with one voice
that the time for navigation was passed, and that everyone who put to
sea at this season was alone responsible for his death, since he voluntarily
placed himself in peril. All with one accord having sacrificed the sum
which they had paid for freight in the ships abandoned their project,
and after some difficulties disembarked at the port of Muscat. 1
The ambassador, however, dared not thus sacrifice his mission
to his fears, and he succeeded in safely reaching his destination.
Upon his return voyage from Mangalore ill fortune again con
demned him to be caught in a storm ; and again the anguish
flowed in rich metaphor from his hyperbolical pen :—
With tears in my eyes I gave myself up for lost. Through the
effects of the stupor and of the profound sadness to which I became a
prey, I remained like the sea, with my lips dry and my eyes moist.
The agitation of the waters caused my body to melt like salt which is
dissolved ; the violence of the deluge annihilated and utterly dispersed
the firmness which sustained me, and my mind, hitherto so strong, was
like the ice which is suddenly exposed to the heat of the month
Tamouz ; even now my heart is troubled and agitated as it were a fish
taken out of fresh water.
In the previous century the poet Hafiz, having attained a
great reputation in the East, had received an invitation from the
Mussulman King of the Deccan to pay him a visit at his Court in
India. The poet venit, vidit, et victus est. Having embarked at
Ormuz, he fell so dreadfully sea-sick that he insisted on being put
ashore again; and as soon as he regained his beloved Shiraz,
composed an ode, 2 which was an unconscious imitation of the
celebrated lines of his Roman prototype fourteen centuries before.
1 India in the Fifteenth Century (Hakluyt Society), p. 7.
2 Vide Brigg’s Ferishta, vol. ii. pp. 348-9.
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 [724r] (1464/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000041> [accessed 4 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