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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [809v] (1635/1814)
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.
492
PERSIA
want of people it is very easy to comprehend. It proceeds on the one
hand from the immeasurable extent of these monarchies, and on the
other from the arbitrary government that is exercised there. 1
Chardin further attributed the dearth of people to four sub
sidiary causes, namely, unnatural vice, immoderate luxury, early
marriages, and constant migration to the Indies. Malcolm, in the
early part of the present century, estimated the population as about
(3,000,000, balancing against the checks upon its growth, which
were identical with those named by Chardin, 2 the following advan
tages, viz., ‘ the salubrity of the climate, the cheapness of provisions,
the rare occurrence of famine, 3 the bloodless character of their civil
wars, their obligation to marry, and the comparatively small number
of prostitutes. 5 Rawlinson in 1850 estimated the population as
10,000,000; but in 1873, after two desolating visitations of cholera
and famine, as 6,000,000. The figures given by other writers
duringthe last twenty years vary between 5,000,000 and 10,000,000.
Nor, indeed, is any estimate based upon data that are either
scientific or reliable. No census is taken in Persia, the machinery
or means for doing so in at all an adequate fashion not being in
existence, and the idea being repugnant to the religious orders.
Neither the assessment for taxation which I have described, nor
t le military conscription list, affords a basis of calculation, which
must therefore be in every case more or less a matter of guesswork
I he two most recent estimates that I have seen differ as widely in
r vijtvyvs wangles;
y) * vyj., xxx. xrir 9 — • ^—X- .
tAA J ' E ' P °I ak ’ Wh0 Was a PVsician, in his Report on Persia in 1873 srav
o owing as the main causes of the decline of population: (1) The unfavouribl
sex 721dec!t of S ™ klm 8? enod ’ thereby impaired fertility of th
wrV— - 7
inhabitants m the slave markets of Khiva anrl UrWi • h ^
mortality among- soldiers enlistPrl fn rr 1 . Bokhara, civil wars, and th<
Properly acclimftised ^
Mussulman elements, such as Guebres Christians and T ’ ^ T e “^ration of non
and Turkey ; ( 5 ) oft-recurrine- famin ^f ’ f ' Iews ’ to Indla > the Caucasus
intensified ^to the highesfTdegree^by'wanfofmean^f 1 ^^ ° f ra ! n Sn ° W ’ bU ’
against the corn trade, bad condition of water channel^a'T™ 10 ^ 1011 ’ preJudlc<
“ This cannot, I think, be said whhTith “lond hSTtl “"‘'t
famines of greater or less severity have occurred at interval about ten
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 [809v] (1635/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000024> [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