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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [839r] (1694/1814)
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
543
After a fracas witli Elton, against whose shipwright's intrigue he
had always protested, he left Persia with a cargo of raw silk in
September 1744, and returned to St. Petersburg, where he resided
for the next five years. His report upon the silk trade of Gilan I
have already cited in my chapter on the Northern Provinces.
Of the factors of the Russia Company left in Persia, Yon
Mierop, went to Meshed and resided there for over two years, but
.. , met with no success. Graham was murdered at Semnan.
Abandon
ment of Five out of the fifteen Europeans employed died at Kaz-
vin between 1740 and 1744. Agues and distempers
prostrated those who lived at Resht. The Russian Consul at the
latter place, Bakunin by name, was particularly hostile. Nor did
the action of Elton render the outlook more promising. The
Russians were seriously irritated at the naval pretensions of Nadir
Shah, and the Russian College of Commerce issued an order that f no
goods or merchandise consigned to Mr. Elton could be permitted
to pass through the Russian Empire.’ Thereupon the Russian
Company in London, in much alarm, decided to recall Elton,
allowing him a pension of 400Z. a year, and to amalgamate their
own business with that of Hanway. Elton, however, spoiled the
arrangement by positively declining to come, and procured a decree
from Nadir Shah (November 1745) ordering his detention in the
country. Matters went from bad to worse. In consequence of
the repeated protests and persecutions of the Russians the two
British vessels were compulsorily parted with to Russian merchants
at Astrakhan and were navigated henceforward under the Russian
flag. In November 1746, the Empress of Russia issued a decree
absolutely interdicting the British Caspian trade. The surviving
English factors lingered on for a time in the vain hope of recu
peration ; but, after the murder of Nadir Shah in June 1747,
they were plundered of 80,000?., and in the subsequent disorder
saw no opportunity of recovering either their property or their
prestige. Accordingly they retired in 1748 and 1749, and
the second and last determined effort of England to open the
Caspian route to Persia perished as miserably as had done its
predecessor. It was not out of harmony with the dismal issue of
the venture that Elton, who was so largely responsible for the
disaster, met with a violent death three years later.
During the six to seven years over which the enterprise extended,
the business accomplished, if not considerable, had been remunera-
About this item
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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 [839r] (1694/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00005f> [accessed 4 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