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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [847r] (1710/1814)
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
555
on the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, where the traffic was in alien hands, the trade
of Persia in the former period was a land-borne trade. Occupying
the neck between two seas, Persia was traversed by caravan routes
that had been trodden from remote antiquity by the interchanging
kafilahs. of the East and West. But those lateral routes are now, for
the most part, deserted; the age of caravans is fading from view ;
the advances in navigation and the invention of steam have driven
commerce to the maritime highways ; and the seas on the north and
south, which were once the main protection of Iran, are now a
means of aggression and a source of weakness. On the Caspian
the Moscovite, in the Gulf the Briton, knocks at her gates, and the
exports and imports, whose freight has allured or enriched half
the nations of Europe, are conveyed in Russian or English holds.
The pride of Portugal is dead ; and her name is unknown in
Persia, save for a few rust-eaten guns and crumbling towers.
The Dutch, who formerly swept the Gulf and dictated terms to the
Persian kings, support a vice-consul only at Bushire. Venice and
Genoa have long ago disappeared from the category of independent
states. Armenians still traffic and barter in Persian bazaars, and
flourish by the profits of retail trade, as they will do till the
crack of doom; but Armenia is not a nation, and her wealth is
only that of households. The mastery of the seas has decided the
long-drawn conflict. Pompey’s aphorism has been proved true.
The struggle has resolved itself into a duel between the maritime
power of the north and the maritime power of the south. Ger
many, Austria, and France claim a portion of the import trade, but
cannot be regarded as serious competitors. It is to a contempla
tion of the duel thus in progress, and to a balance of the position
and prospects of the two combatants, that I now turn.
Though the appearance of Russia as a formidable influence
upon the scene was foreshadowed from the days of Peter the Great,
Russian an d was facilitated by the collapse in the middle of the
asecn- same century of the last attempted revival of the British
the North Caspian trade, it was not till after the Russo-Persian
wars in the first quarter of the present century, and more especially
not till after the treaty of Turkomanchai in 1828, that Russian
mercantile ascendency in the north could be said to have at all a
stable foundation. By the earlier treaty of Gulistan in 1813, the
Caspian had already become a Russian mare clausum ; but in 1817
Yermoloff, the Russian ambassador, had pressed in vain for the
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 [847r] (1710/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00006f> [accessed 4 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