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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎834v] (1685/1814)

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. .

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534
PERSIA
merchants then monopolised the northern outlets of Persian trade
to the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. and Europe. Undismayed^ Jenkinson spent the
winter of 1562-3 at Moscow, organising a second expedition.
Thomas Alcock and Richard Chenie were the factors who represented
the company upon this venture, but their fortune was even more
untoward. Abdullah Khan, the King of Shir wan (dependent upon
Persia), who had favoured Jenkinson, was angry because a Moham
medan had been killed by a Russian. Deprived of the loyal piotec
tion, Alcock was murdered on his way back to the coast, and Chenie
only escaped with difficulty. The third expedition, which left
Astrakhan in July 1565, in a boat of twenty-seven tons burden
built for the company at Yaroslav, was as little exempt from
personal misfortune, but found the commercial outlook moie
reassuring. Its history is related in a series of foui letters by
Arthur Edwards, one of the factors. Alexander Kitchin, one of
his colleagues, and Richard Davis, one of the sailors, lost their lives
from illness ; but Edwards, arriving safely at Kazvin in May 1566,
found the Shah in a much more amiable temper than heretofore.
‘ He was desirous of London clothes (i.e. cloths), three or foure of
all sorts for example, being wel shorne and drest. The Persians
talke much of London clothes, and they that knowe the wearing
are desirous of them before the cloth of the women’s making (i.e.
native fabrics), for they finde it nothing durable, for when it cometh to
weare on the threede, it renteth like paper . 5 Shah Tahmasp now
gave a formal letter of privileges, or charter, to the Moscovy Company,
guaranteeing them the following advantages : exemption from all
tolls and customs, protection for their merchants ‘ from all evil
persons , 5 and right of free way throughout the country, legal re
covery of just debts, immunity from robbery, and assistance in
unlading. Edwards sent home to his employers a list of the
imports which might advantageously be sent into Persia from
England, consisting of carseis or kersies , 1 tume, Brasil, redde cloth,
and copper ; and also of the exports which he proposed to ship
from the Caspian, and which comprised ‘ rawe silke, peper, ginger,
nutmegs, brimstone, allam (alum), rice, galles (gall-nuts), cloves,
and yew for bowe-staves . 5 His letters also contain a curious
allusion to the Russians, in which we may trace the first dawn
1 These were woollen cloths, which received the name from the village of
Kersey, in Suffolk, where the woollen trade had been established by a colony of
Flemings.

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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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎834v] (1685/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000056> [accessed 5 June 2026]

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