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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [757v] (1531/1814)
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.
430
PERSIA
Mekran
coast
out, and a lawn-tennis court marked on tlie level clay. The British
India Company’s flag flies above the hut occupied by its agent;
and a double row of huts accommodate the native employes of the
various establishments. Such, and no more, is Task : almost the
onlv trade being in fish, of which an immense number—somewhat
like whitebait—are caught at certain seasons of the year, and are
shipped across to the Arab coast, where they are utilised sometimes
as food, more commonly as manure for the date-palms. The cus
toms are farmed for the modest sum of 500
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
. At a distance
of twenty miles inland, a remarkable conical hill, called by the
natives Jebel Bahmedi, rises to a height of 3,100 feet above the sea.
From Task the steamer, as a rule, crosses to Muscat on the
opposite coast of Oman, a distance of 133 miles. But before
passing from Persia proper to a discussion of its vis-d-vis
neighbours on the other side of the Gulf, let me complete
my survey of the Persian littoral as far as the eastern frontier.
From Jask, eastwards, the coast line is of a sullen mountainous
character, and would seem to be wholly deserted by human habita
tion. We approach here the district commonly designated as the
Mekran coast, though since Sir F. Goldsmid’s able determination of
the boundaries in 1871, it has been divided into the territories of
Persian Beluchistan, terminating at Gwetter, and further east of
Independent Beluchistan. In my chapter upon the South-eastern
Provinces of Persia, I have described the state of affairs in Persian
Beluchistan, and have shown how reluctantly there, as elsewhere,
the indigenous population have submitted to Persian bayonets;
although such are their weakness and destitution, that resistance
becomes hopeless, and the mere appearance of the ‘ Persepolis ’ with
its four Krupp guns off the coast throws its scanty inhabitants
into paroxysms of dread.
Immediately beyond Gwetter is a strip of seaboard, about fifty
miles in length, belonging to the Khan of Kelat, but separated
from the remainder of the Beluch territory by a further
and smaller strip, which has for 100 years been in the
undisputed possession of the Sultan of Muscat. The latter consists
merely of a few miles of coast, dependent upon the town of Gwadur, 1
Gwadur
1 The Beluchi Gwadur is the same name as Badara or Yadara, which occurs
in the Ptolemaic Pinax, in Orthagoras, and in Arrian, and is either a Dravidian
name, or of Aryan origin, in which case it might be derived from the Sanskrit
vadara the cotton-plant, or badara the Zizyphus or jujube-tree.
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 [757v] (1531/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000084> [accessed 6 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