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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [802v] (1621/1814)
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.
478
PERSIA
sents at
No Ruz,
&c.
governor, who is free to manipulate the allocation as he will, there
being no pretence to system or uniformity. In the form in which
it reaches the taxpayer, it may be usually represented as a sort
of graduated income-tax, levied according to the worldly circum
stances of those from whom it is demanded. In the past year
(1891) such a tax was levied on the district south of Tabriz in order
to meet the expenses of the troops.despatched to Suj Bulak against
the Kurds. An interesting variety of this tax is levied in some
districts when the Governor makes his tour of inspection. Sup
plies, in excess of all possible needs, are first exacted from the in
habitants ; and the surplus is then resold to the villagers, who are
compelled to buy back the very grain which, a few weeks before,
they had been compelled to provide gratis.
The sums received by the Shah at the annual festival of No
Ruz, which afford as graphic an illustration as the cynic could
2 . Pre- desire of the cynic’s definition of gratitude as a sense of
favours to come, were formerly one of the main sources
of the royal income. Malcolm estimated their value in
the time of Rath Ali Shah, who was notoriously avaricious, as
] , 200 , 000 £.; but his calculations, which in the case of the Persian
revenue seem to have been uniformly pitched too high, are reduced
to more probable proportions by the contemporary statements of
Eraser, that they amounted to 1,000,000 to 1,200,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
,
or, at the then rate of exchange (1
toman
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
= 12 s.), 600,000Z. to
720,000/. ; and of Macdonald Kinneir, who named 943,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
as the total of the whole annual jnshhesh received by the Crown.
These imposing totals have greatly dwindled in recent years, other
and more ingenious means of levying a tax upon official wealth,
or in other words upon official embezzlement, having been dis
covered 5 and the united values of the jpislikesli received by the
Shah on the two occasions of the No Ruz and of the Prophet’s
Birthday in the year 1888-9 amounted only, according to the
figures presented to me, to 120,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
, or, at the then rate of
exchange, to 35,800/. I cannot be certain, however, that the
correct amount would appear in these tables.
Malcolm estimated the value of the presents received in the
shape of fines, bribes, confiscations, and gratuities, by the king as
half of the legular Bnthday jpishlcGsh. There is no means whatever
of ascertaining what is their modern amount, seeing that they
are in the nature of private presents to the sovereign, and dis-
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 [802v] (1621/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000016> [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