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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [750r] (1516/1814)
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
PERSIAN GULF
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
421
its climate, tlie new port was far worse equipped in both par
ticulars, and excited by its desagrements the irritated reproaches
of travellers. Master Ralph Fitch, the worthy Elizabethan
Its clinicitG ^
merchant before mentioned, thus expressed himself, in
1583, about its charms :—
Nature seemed not to have designed it should be inhabited. It is
situated at the foot of a ridge of mountains of excessive height; the
air you breathe seems to be on fire ; mortal vapours continually exhale
from the bowels of the earth ; the fields are black and dry as if they
had been scorched with fire.
Chardin spoke of the ‘ foul and lethal air,’ which compelled
the people to retire for six months in spring and summer to the
mountains. Herbert is, as usual, more comic than any other
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
: —
The air is insufferable, so as some use to lie naked in troughs filled
with water, which nevertheless so perboils their flesh as makes it both
exceeding smooth and apt to take the least cold when any winterly
weather succeeds the heat, which by that becomes little less offensive . 1
Fifty years later the British tars who manned the vessel of Dr.
Fryer expressed similar sentiments in a more professional vocabulary
by declaring that c there was but an inch-deal betwixt Gomberoon
and Hell.’ 2
John Struys, the Dutchman, however, made the honest con
fession that the effect of the climate was ‘ enhanced by a liquor
called Palepunsken, which is so bewitching that they cannot refrain
from drinking it. 3 So unanimous, however, was the general
censure, that all writers combined in bewildered admiration of a
famous
banian
Merchant of Indian extraction.
-tree {Ficus Indica), which was situated about three
miles from the ancient town, and was said to cover 400 men with
its branches. Several of the seventeenth century travellers present
illustrations of this curiosity.
In the anarchy that ensued upon the invasion of the Afghans
in 1722 and the overthrow of the Sefavi dynasty, the English and
Dutch merchants shut up their houses in Isfahan, and retired to
Some 1 cares -travels, pp. 112-13. Travels in Persia, p. 228.
3 Voyages, vol. iii. cap. 36. Can he mean ‘ pale punch ’ ? The latter beverage
(which Mandelslo calls pauntz) was said to have been invented by the Duke of
Holstein’s Mission to Persia, to which Mandelslo was attached, in 1(137; and to
have been so called from the five (punj, e.g. Punj-ab) ingredients used in its
composition—viz. spirit, lime-juice, spice, sugar, and rosewater.
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 [750r] (1516/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000075> [accessed 5 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