![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎825r] (1666/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1696.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎825r] (1666/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [825r] (1666/1814)
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.
515
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ch minerals Wet
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REVENUE, RESOURCES, AND MANUFACTURES
Lead has been continually extracted from the Khalkal region, 14
farsahhs from Tabriz, whence also copper and saltpetre have been
derived. Coal is even now dug from a spot four miles to the north
east of Tabriz. Bordering on Azerbaijan on the south-east is the
district of Khamseh, with its capital Zinjan, where are deposits of
copper, lead, and coal, as also of mercury 1 (which was known m
the middle ages) at Ak Derreh and Kiz Kapan to the west, of
Zinjan. Although it is as yet too early to predict anything with
certainty of this zone, there is every reason to believe, from what is
known of its unquestioned geological attributes, and from the
presence in its centre of a great city as a purchasing market, that
mining operations will successfully be commenced here in the near
future. Of the marble pits of Dehkharegan, producing the petri
faction commonly called Maragha marble, I have elsewhere spoken.
It has been known, since Chardin’s and Hanway’s times, that
the slopes of the Elburz were peculiarly rich in deposits of coal
2 . Elburz an d iron ; and from their greater proximity to the capital,
rang 6 ag we R as from this fact, it has arisen that these resources
have been more freely exploited than any others in Persia. This
zone may be divided into the northern and the southern slopes of
the Elburz, facing respectively towards the Caspian Sea and the
Teheran Valley. In the former sub-division the presence of several
iron and lead mines is known; and certain of either class are
worked, notably the iron mines of Naij, near Amol, about which
Han way wrote, and to export the produce of which (the ore con
tains fifty to sixty per cent, of iron) the Mahmudabad-Amol railway,
which I have previously described, has in part been constructed.
It is a noticeable and an encouraging fact that in this region the
iron 2 and coal mines are generally found in close proximity to each
other. More definite intelligence is in our possession regarding
the southern, or coal-bearing slopes of the Elburz, where a certain
wrote of the entire district that ‘ it seems to be one enormous mass of the most
valuable minerals, whole mountains being apparently composed of ores, perhaps
the richest in the world—viz., iron, tin, and copper;’ and of an unworked tin
mine at Angert, he said that‘it is, perhaps, the most wonderful in the world.’
Morier, speaking of the same region, quoted the words of Deut. viii. 9 : ‘ A land
whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.’
1 Mercury is at present so rare in Persia that it costs 10?. per flask of 75 lbs.,
or 300?. a ton, in Teheran.
2 The iron at present used in Teheran is almost exclusively Russian. In simple
bars, it costs 3^ krans (about 2s. 6d.) per man (6^ lbs.). Russian pig iron costs
20?. per ton.
\
L L 2
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 [825r] (1666/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000043> [accessed 2 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