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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [794v] (1605/1814)
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.
PERSIA
466
Climate
of the
Gulf
is roost trying; and political officers on the list of the Indian
Foreign Office, or ships’ officers in the service of the companies
that navigate the Indian seas, hear with horror that they
have been commissioned to what is spoken of, with a
sort of grim personification, as c the Gnlf.’ I have been
told that under the awning on the deck of a Gulf steamer the
thermometer has stood in the morning at 120° Fahrenheit, while
on shore at Muscat a black-bulb solar thermometer has registered
187° in the sun. The intense heat is aggravated rather than
relieved by the extreme humidity of the atmosphere and by the
dust which the slightest wind raises in clouds from the Arabian
desert, and blows in an opaque yellow pall across sea and land.
The hot weather causes the skin irritation known as prickly heat,
from which every one suffers ; nor is the torment of the day
redeemed, as it is further north at Baghdad, by the coolness of the
night, although an abundant dew sometimes falls and renders
sleeping in the open air a questionable relief. The prevailing
wind is the shamed, or north-west, which blows down the Gulf
from its western extremity, alternating in the winter months with
the sharhi, or south-east wind, which is cold and biting at sea, and
is apt to bring short-lived storms of rain.
The mercantile navigation of the Gulf, as it now exists, is the
creation of the last thirty years, and is largely to be attributed to
Mercantile Ike statesmanship of Sir Bartle Frere. In 1862 not a
navigation s i n gi e mercantile steamer ploughed these waters. A
six-weekly service was then started, followed by a monthly, a
fortnightly, and, finally, by a weekly steamer. The opening of
the Suez Canal gave an impetus to steam-borne traffic With the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
which was further increased during the Russo-Turkish
war in 1877, and has attained even more satisfactory proportions
since. The principal trade, apart from the coasting traffic, which
is in the hands of native buggalows, is now conducted by the
steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company, six of
whose vessels, detached for this service, carry the mails, and leave
Bombay and Busrah once a week, touching at the intermediate
ports of Kurrachi, Gwadur, Muscat, Task, Bunder Abbas, Lingah,
Bahrein, Bushire, Fao, and Mohammerah ; and occupying, with
stoppages, a period of exactly a fortnight for a distance of about
1,970 miles. This is, of course, very slow progress; and except
to those who are interested in the history, commerce, and politics
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 [794v] (1605/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000006> [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