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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [757r] (1530/1814)
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.
429
established in, those parts. When the telegraph station had been
first opened at Task in 1869, the cape was a barren piece of sand
to which no claimant turned a thought. This tiny military settle
ment remained unnoticed and unobjected to until 1886, when the
Persian Government, hearing that a small trade had sprung up
since the arrival of the English, sent an agent to establish a
custom-house. This individual detected an opportunity of personal
distinction which was not to be missed. In a highly-coloured
report, he represented the English as exercising sovereign rights
upon Persian territory, and acquiring undue political influence over
the Beluchi tribes (the village sheikh received a few
rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
a year
for the preservation of the wire running through the district) ; and
himself as having by valiant measures restored seventeen town
ships to the Persian allegiance. He received his decoration, and
subsided into satisfied obscurity. The two local sheikhs, however,
who were quite innocent of anything in the nature of a conspiracy,
were carried off in chains, and were only released after a long im
prisonment. Meanwhile the Shah appealed to the Indian Govern
ment to withdraw the
sepoys
Term used in English to refer to an Indian infantryman. Carries some derogatory connotations as sometimes used as a means of othering and emphasising race, colour, origins, or rank.
. Under similar conditions Russia
would doubtless have replied, J’y suis, f y reste. The Viceroy, how
ever, respecting the susceptibilities of the Shah, and having no
further need for the service of land-troops since the police of
the Gulf is now so well assured, withdrew the detachment, and the
quarters which they occupied at Task are now empty.
In their place has been built a square fort, which I found
tenanted by a Persian deputy-governor, subordinate to the Saad-
Modern el-Mulk, with a guard of forty soldiers commanded by a
Jask corporal. He has wo raison d’etre except to assert Persian
sovereignty over the strip of soil on which he is located, and to
overawe the tribes in the interior by the display of his dingy body
guard. The Persian authority here, as elsewhere along this coast,
is cordially detested by the local tribes, who have been accustomed
to a life of independence, and who resent the appearance of the tax-
collector and the serbaz, as the death-warrant of their old freedom.
On shore, the British telegraph station and its surroundings, where
there is a staff of six English officials, and in front of which the
British ensign floats from a flagstaff, betray that neat and orderly
appearance which may everywhere be associated with an English
habitation, from Plymouth to Yokohama. Some trees have been
planted, a fresh-water tank has been constructed, a little garden laid
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 [757r] (1530/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000083> [accessed 10 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