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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [799r] (1614/1814)
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.
471
REVENUE, RESOURCES, AND MANUFACTURES
In practice it is found that the assessment frequently amounts to
thirty per cent., and twenty-five per cent, may perhaps be taken
as a fair average. The system, however, varies absolutely m
different parts of the country, and even in different parts of the
same province; and in the course of a single journey, the inquiring
traveller will perhaps encounter wholly divergent and inconsistent
methods of application. Thus, in Azerbaijan, the chief agricultural
province of Persia, the bulk of taxation is levied on the land and
its produce, but in some cases it is levied on the number of oxen
used in the plough, and m others on the land and oxen combined;
while elsewhere, again, a poll-tax is imposed, jplus a tax on horses,
cows, asses, and sheep. In that province the revenue exacted is
commonly as follows —
If from the land alone, one-tenth of the produce.
If by a poll-tax, 3s. per adult male : Is. U. from women and youths.
If upon oxen, lls. 9^. per yoke of oxen.
If upon cattle, 8fd. per horse, ass, or cow ; per sheep.
A further anomaly arises from the fact that the taxes are levied
sometimes from the proprietor, sometimes from the cultivator, local
custom again being the determiniug cause.
Here, however, we are brought face to face with a truly Persian
phenomenon. The system which I have sketched, though anoma-
Method of l° us an d intricate, yet rests upon a simple and intelligible
payment principle, namely, a fixed contribution to the revenue,
based upon the wealth-producing capacity of the soil, and levied
upon those whose business it is to pay it. In piactice, however,
this system is wholly abandoned ; it would not dovetail with the
larger system of organised peculation upon which Persian govern
ment and society alike subsist, and would not provide those
opportunities for extensive mudakhil which are so dear to the
official mind. Accordingly, so far from the taxes being levied
from the individual taxpayer by the revenue officers, we find that
they are raised in lump sums from villages, towns, or districts,
the taxes being, in fact, farmed out by the Government for a fixed
money payment, and the allocation in subordinate areas being left
to the arbitrary decision of local governors, chiefs, or headmen.
Frequently the owner of a property farms his own taxes from the
Government, so as to escape the visits of the official assessor; i.e.
he compounds by an annual cash payment for the stricter obliga
tion that would accrue from an official assessment if conducted.
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 [799r] (1614/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00000f> [accessed 5 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