![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎735r] (1486/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1502.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎735r] (1486/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [735r] (1486/1814)
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.
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THE
PERSIAN GULF
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
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on the threshold of the Gulf, to which it commands the entry from
the east, and opening up long-sanctified routes of communication
into the interior of Asia as far as the yellow Oxus and the snowy
Hindu Kush, its harbours have for centuries been battled for by
European nations; have flown in turn the flags of Portugal, the
Netherlands, Great Britain, Arabia, and Persia; have teemed with
argosies of wealth, upon which historians love to linger ; and now, ^
in their last state, though shorn of all splendour, and protesting ) (C { f h
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against their degradation with the mute appeal of ruined fortress r
and battered tower, still pour for the most part into foreign garners
the wealth which their native peoples have never had the spirit or
the capacity to retain for themselves. At Lingah and Bunder
Abbas the chief traders are Hindu Buniahs from Shikarpur and
the Sind province; the customs are commonly farmed by them ;
and the vessels that all but monopolise the carrying trade are
those of the British India line. In this interesting quarter I am
tempted to halt a little longer upon sites that have been celebrated
by the travellers and historians of more than ten centuries, even
though their glory be chiefly centered in the past.
Lingah is the first of these ports that is visited from the west,
309 miles distant by sea from Bushire. It is the prettiest and
most attractive of the Gulf ports, if prettiness can, indeed,
be predicated of any of these maritime towns. A long
line of yellow houses, glittering in t he recess of a wide bay; a
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Lingah
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fringe of tufted palms behind it; a stretch of desert; and then the
mountains, rising first in strange, twisted contortions, in whose ,^ f
folds and hollows a violet mist*seems perpetually to tremble, and
further away, in a long rugged wall against the sky, a pale pink, A- u ^ .< « r
and sometimes a silver grey in hue—this is the agreeable pano- ^ - /ac
rama that is visible from the sea. The mountain scarp behind A//
rises in its highest points to 2,900 and 3,900 feet, one of these
being marked on the nautical chart, presumably by some old sea-
captain, as Grubb’s Notch. The anchorage is in three fathoms of
water, at a distance of about a mile from the land. Alone among ^ '
the Gulf ports, Lingah possesses a small wet dock, defended by a
wall from the sea, and filled or emptied by the tide. A couple of
dozen vessels, ranging from buggalows down to small craft, were
lying in it at the time of my visit. The sloping beach of sand is
also utilised for shipbuilding purposes. Three or four of the
largest buggalows, ranging up to 300 tons burden, are built here
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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 [735r] (1486/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000057> [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