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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [836r] (1688/1814)
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.
COMMERCE AND TRADE
537
invitation, with Russian countenance, and very largely on Russian
rivers and soil. The reason of this strange phenomenon was the
Causes of following: The Russians were at that time in far too
failure backward a condition to embark upon any trading
venture, or even upon any maritime expedition, themselves; and
were content, therefore, to profit by the superior skill and industry
of others. Moreover, Ivan the Terrible stood greatly in need of
supplies, and particularly of warlike stores and ordnance, which
could only be procured from the foreigner, and which the English
merchants brought out to him from London in return for the ex
emptions granted to them in Russian territory. The failure of
the British experiment was attributable to several reasons : im
perfect acquaintance with the country, which had led the first
voyagers to underrate the competition of the Turks, Armenians,
and Venetians, whose long-established control of the Persian
market was not easily to be shaken; bad management ; 1 the risks
.arising partly from the navigation of the Caspian, partly from the
Persian climate, and partly from the insecurity inseparable from
barbarous manners and troubled times; but, above all, the exorbi
tant length and complexity of the sea, river, and land route
•employed, which rendered it impossible for merchandise so con
veyed to compete with the more direct overland and maritime
routes by which Persia was approached on the south and west.
Nevertheless, history does not record a finer example of British
‘daring ; and the names of these forgotten factors are as worthy of
remembrance as those of illustrious mariners who have bequeathed
new titles to the shores and islands of the western main.
For some time after this the northern route to Persia, via
Russia and the Caspian, was abandoned by English merchants, the
•Grant to close of the century having witnessed the inauguration
Anthony a fr 08 ! 1 undertaking, to which I shall presently turn.
Sherley In 1600, however, Sir Anthony Sheriey, an English
gentleman and soldier of fortune, appeared in Persia, acting upon
the suggestion of his friend the Earl of Essex, then Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland, with the double object of persuading the Shah to join
in an alliance against the Turks, and of re-establishing commercial
intercourse between Persia and England. At Venice he had
1 A
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
in Purchas’ Pilgrims says that the ‘ evill success was owing to the
forwardnesse of some few and evill doing of some unjust factors,’ no doubt an
allusion to Johnson.
id'
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 [836r] (1688/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000059> [accessed 11 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