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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [749v] (1515/1814)
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.
■
420 PERSIA
broke the ice, the Dutch find good fishing.’ Malcolm speaks of the
denouement in terms of unaccustomed warmth :—
The English had, it is true, revenged themselves on an enemy they
hated, destroyed a flourishing settlement, and brought ruin and misery
upon thousands, to gratify the avarice and ambition of a despot, on
his promising to enrich them by a favour, which they should have
known was not likely to protect them, even during his life, from the
violence and injustice of his officers, much less during that of his
successors. The history of the English
factory
An East India Company trading post.
at Gombroon, from this
date until it was finally abandoned, is one series of disgraces, of losses,
of dangers, as that of every such establishment in a country like
Persia must be. Had that nation either taken Ormuz for itself, or
made a settlement on a more eligible island in the Gulf, it Avould have
carried on its commerce to much greater advantage ; and its political
influence, both in Persia and Arabia, would have remained unrivalled . 1
The only immediate and practical result of the conquest, apart
from the disappearance of the Portuguese, was that Gombrun
received the name of Bunder Abbas, in honour of the
Move to • • ...... 7 . . ^
Bunder victorious monarch, and that it became the headquarters,
for a century from this date, of the foreign trade with the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. The English, French, and Dutch possessed fac
tories there ; 2 two forts protected the town on the east and west,
and, about the year 1650, it was surrounded by a wall on the land
side. Chardin says that in his day the place contained 1,400 or
1,500 houses, a mixed population of Persians, Jews (50), and
Indians, and that it was fronted by a quay more than a mile long.
The English and Dutch factories were in the centre of the town as
it then existed, which was a good deal to the west of the modern
site; but in 1698 the Dutch erected a new house on the eastern
outskirts, which is the centre of the modern Bunder Abbas.
Nevertheless, small as had been the intrinsic recommendations
of Ormuz as the site of a great city, and torrid as had been
1 History of Persia, vol. i. cap. xii. Sir C. MacGregor {Journey through
Khorasan, vol. i. p. 8) recommended a return from the mainland to Ormuz. But,
seeing- that the trade of Bunder Abbas is now a purely overland trade to the
cities of central, southern, and north-eastern Persia, and that the mediseval trade
route to Europe via Busrah, Baghdad, and Aleppo has ceased to exist, I can see
no wisdom in a recommendation which would necessitate a double, instead of a
single, shipment, and which would benefit nobody,
2 The English alone possessed the privilege, in memory of their services against
Ormuz, of flying their own flag on their agent’s house.
3
n
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 [749v] (1515/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000074> [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