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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [808v] (1633/1814)
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.
I
490
PERSIA
that he may evoke the customary percentage to the State. As
long as he fulfils the latter obligation, he is too useful a citizen to
be dispossessed. The Persian landlord, however, as a rule does not
farm his own property. It is let to tenants, who, without either
owning or claiming proprietary rights, and blissfully ignorant of
the Shibboleth of the Three P's, yet enjoy practical fixity of tenure
so long as they pay the Persian equivalent to their rent. This is
a portion of the produce regulated by the contribution of both
parties to the working expenses, and varying in different parts of
the country. In Azerbaijan I have seen it stated that the landlord
only takes one-tenth, and, if he has provided the seed beforehand,
an interest of 50 per cent, on his loan. In Mazanderan he is more
exacting. The harvest there is divided into five parts, which are
apportioned as follows, one part to each—land, water for irrigation,
seed, labour, and bullocks. The landlord generally owns one or two
and receives accordingly one-fifth or two-fifths of the harvest. Some
times he also supplies the seed, in which case he receives three-fifths,
and the husbandman the remaining two-fifths. In other parts of the
country other partitions prevail. Where population is so thin as in
Persia, and where cultivation can only be achieved at the expense
of steady industry and toil—not indeed in labour upon the land itself
so much as in digging and maintaining Imnats, and in regulating the
measured supply—it is to the interest of the landowner to be on
the best of terms with his tenant; and the Persian peasant, even
i ie can justly complain of Government exaction, has not found
any one to teach him the gospel of landlord tyranny. He is poor,
illiterate, and stolid; but in appearance he is robust, in strength
he is like an ox, he usually has clothes to his back, and he is seldom
a beggar. With the grossest ignorance he combines a rude skill
m turning to account the scanty resources of nature, and though
he neither expects nor aspires to prosper, he is patient and perse
vering. His times of misery occur when there is a break-down of
he water supply or when, after long drought, there is a famine in
off 11 fl- t, T Cared fOT ’ th6 Persian Peasantry then die
/ eS ' f 16 C011<Iltl0ns of agriculture might be enormously
improved were the energy of Government to support that of indi
viduals, and were certain sums annually set apart for the proper
economy and storage of water. There are many places where in-
valuable supplies are allowed to tear a channel for themselves
down the mountain gullies in flood time, and then to perish in
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 [808v] (1633/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000022> [accessed 7 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