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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [809r] (1634/1814)
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.
491
REVENUE, resources, and manufactures
swamps and pools in the desert. Reservoirs for such spates might
be constructed in the mountains, like that formed by the well-
known dam of Shah Abbas near Kuhrud; whilst any one who
desires to see what can be done by a Government in the construction
of tanks on a large scale for purposes of irrigation, has but to pay
a visit to tlie island of Ceylon. .
From the Persian Budget I pass to the material and industrial
resources of the country—those possessions or advantages, m fact,
which are capable of being utilised as means of wealth.
Population F . rst ainong a nation ’ s resources must be counted its
people ; and I turn accordingly to the question of the Persian popu
lation. There can, I think, be no doubt that Persia was once much
less sparsely populated than it is at present. Even if we reject the
fifty millions ascribed by some writers to the time of Darius, and
the forty millions mentioned by Chardin in the Sefavean days, as
fantastic and absurd, I judge that the population must in former
times have greatly exceeded its present total, less from the conjec
tural estimates of travellers and historians than from the evidence
that everywhere meets the eye. Puined cities, abandoned villages,
and deserted bazaars, long lines of choked hanats, public works
that once assisted to fertilise large districts now mouldering to
decay, wide acres of cultivation since relapsed into sand and stones,
all these tell a tale whose significance cannot be mistaken; even
although we remember that every abandoned site does not neces
sarily mean a corresponding extinction of life or industry, the
Persians, in their corporate as well as in their individual capacity,
having always exhibited a strange inclination to shift their place
of abode, from the sovereign, who sought to immortalise himself by
founding a new capital or building a new palace, to the peasant
who vacated his predecessor’s hovel. That the population of Persia,
therefore, was once much larger than at present I think we may
regard as certain; although I am unwilling to believe, in view of
the physical conditions of the country, and of the constant warfare
to which it has been a prey, that it was ever dense. Chardin him
self supports my hypothesis, and supplies a corrective to his own
exaggerated estimate when he elsewhere says :—
The country is but thinly inhabited. I speak in general, the
twelfth part is not inhabited nor cultivated ; and after you have passed
any great towns about two leagues you will meet never a mansion
house nor people in twenty leagues more. As for the cause of the
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 [809r] (1634/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000023> [accessed 5 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