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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [815r] (1646/1814)
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.
REVENUE, RESOURCES, AND MANUFACTURES
501
juice, will contain 9-10 per cent, of morphine. That exported to
London or America contains up to 12 per cent.
Among the remaining vegetable products, of Persia, attention
must be drawn to the medicinal and colouring plants, of whic
Medicinal there is a quite exceptional variety, the timber,, and the
plants flowers and fruits. Gum-tragacanth, the. exudation o± the
astragalus, a low thorn bush, is collected in the hilly country, from
Kerman to Kermanshah, and is exported, the best qualities to
London, the inferior to Russia. Gum-arabic is extracted from the
konar tree in the south near Shiraz. Gum-ammoniac, galbanum,
and sagapenum are produced in the neighbourhoods of Isfahan,
Shiraz, Laristan, and Khorasan. Opoponax, sarcocolla, colocynth,
and scammony are also known. The valuable, but odoriferous,
gum known as asafoetida is extracted from a desert plant that
otows near Birjand and Tabbas in Khorasan, and in many parts of
Persian Beluchistan. The dried leaves and stem of this plant are
also used in the form of a decoction for various ailments., and in
solid shape as a medicinal condiment. Old men affect it as an
aphrodisiac. The shrub is low and stunted, being seldom above
8 in. or 1 ft. high, with leaves like the Indian beetroot and a head
like a cauliflower; but its root, from which the gum is extracted,
is often as thick as a man’s leg. The stem is sliced, sometimes as
often as fourteen times in the year, and the juice is collected
during the eight months from spring to autumn, until the root is
exhausted, each plant being expected to yield 1 lb. weight. Any
one who has ever been near to asafoetida in the bazaars or on the
wharves, is not likely to forget the overpowering sensation. The
Persians themselves do not appear to understand or to take ad
vantage of the medicinal properties of the gum, but it constitutes
a remunerative export. Liquorice also grows wild everywhere.
The number of plants providing popular or serviceable dyes is
also considerable. Indigo is grown in the south-west, near Shushter
Colouring and Dizful, and in Laristan, and is used in the dyeing of
plants cotton, and also (mixed with henna) in the colouring of
beards. The latter plant, consisting of the pulverised leaf of the Law-
sonia inermis, is cultivated near Yezd and Kerman, and is said to
contain five or six times more dye stuff than any other specimen.
A decoction therefrom is in wide use throughout the East for the
beautifying of the beard, hair, and nails; and I entertain to this
hour admiring recollections of the superb scarlet beard of Mirza
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 [815r] (1646/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00002f> [accessed 6 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