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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [750v] (1517/1814)
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.
422
PERSIA
Bunder Abbas. But here, too, the prevailing insecurity was speedily
felt, and commerce rapidly declined. In 1738 the English Com-
Collapse Of pany established an
agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
at Busrah, and a good deal
the
factory
An East India Company trading post.
0 f their Gulf business was shifted to that port. In 1750
at Bunder • t p -i •
Abbas Bartholomew Plaisted found nine out of ten houses
at Bunder Abbas deserted. In 1758 Edward Ives still found
there an English agent with five assistants, but said, ‘ The English
and Dutch
factory
An East India Company trading post.
-houses are the only buildings remaining of any
importance; the whole city besides is almost one entire scene of
ruin. 5 In the succeeding year, the Comte d Estaing, a Frenchman
who had been released on parole from imprisonment at Madras, at
the head of a fleet of four vessels flying the Dutch colours, entered
the roadstead and attacked and captured the English
factory
An East India Company trading post.
; and
from about this time, accordingly, may be dated the temporary
cessation of the Company’s establishment at Bunder Abbas. The
latest records that have been preserved relating to this period
bear the date 1763.
Almost simultaneously, however, with the retreat from Bunder
Abbas occurred the foundation of a new English depot at Bushire.
Removal to The latter place had been selected by Nadir Shah as the
Businre gite of a naval station, because of its proximity to Shiraz ;
and here, in confirmation of an agreement entered into with the
local sheikh, the excellent Kerim Khan Zend (Vekii or Regent),
by a document dated July 2, 1763, 1 granted permission to c the
Right Worshipful William Andrew Price, Governor of the English
nation in the Gulf of Persia, 5 to build a
factory
An East India Company trading post.
, Avith exemption
from all custom-duties, and a complete monopoly of the import
of woollen cloths. Ever since that date Bushire has been the head
quarters of British commerce in the Gulf.
We next come to a curious episode in the history of these Gulf
ports, in which another proprietor, the Arab Sultan or Imam of
Claims Of Muscat, appears upon the scene. It seems, that Nadir
Muscat Shah, conscious that his authority was somewhat pre
carious in these regions, and preferring a certain annual contribu
tion to the revenue to an assertion of authority that might have
provoked resistance, granted the district of Bunder Abbas and the
islands of Kishm and Ormuz by a
firman
A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
to the Arab sheikh of
the Beni Maaini tribe. The subjects of one of his successors
suffered so severely from misrule that in the last quarter of the
1 Quoted byC. R. Markham, History of Persia, Appendix A., pp. 530-1.
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 [750v] (1517/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000076> [accessed 8 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