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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [848r] (1712/1814)
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
•557
•abled them to survive the cost of the long caravan journeys from
the Black Sea, from Baghdad, or from the Gulf. It should be
noted further that the Bussian approaches, both by land and sea
upon the north, are far easier and more expeditious than are the
corresponding avenues open to Great Britain upon the south and
west. Though the Persian ports or landing-places on the Caspian
can scarcely be distinguished, in point of execrable badness, from
their rivals on the Gulf, they are yet situated within as many
hundred miles of the Bussian ports of embarkation or the reverse,
as the Gulf ports are distant thousands from Bombay or from
London. The Russian frontier is within eighty miles of Tabriz,
the commercial capital of Persia. Russian steamers can unlade
their goods within 160 miles of Teheran, the political capital and
largest centre of population. No such stupendous passes intervene
between the landing-stage and the market on the north as the
tear-compelling totals of the southern coast. Finally, contrast the
distance that separates Teheran from Manchester with that between
Teheran and Moscow !
Fortunately, this Russian predominance, which I shall presently
analyse in detail, stands neither uncontested nor alone. It is
British as- balanced in the whole of Central and Southern Persia by
cendency a British ascendency, with which the distance of Russia
touth from the Indian Ocean has never enabled her to compete,
and which is now so firmly established as to defy assault. This
superiority, though it was anticipated and founded by the meri
torious part played by Great Britain in the pacification of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
from the beginning of the present century, is yet, m
its later, and as yet unarrested, expansion, the work of a period
even nearer to ourselves than that which has witnessed the corre
sponding growth of Bussian trade on the north. It has been com-
nrehended within the last twenty years, and may be said to date
from the opening of the Suez Canal. In 1876 the tonnage of
British shipping in the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
was returned at only 1,200
tons In 1889 115,000 tons of shipping, of which Ho,000 were
British were cleared from the port of Bushire. In 1870 only a
monthly steamer visited the Gulf from Bombay, and three or at
the most, four sailing ships a year from England. The weekly
and fortnightly services that now ply with exemplary regularity
have bee/named in my chapter on the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. This
astonishing growth is to be attributed to four causes: to 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 [848r] (1712/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000071> [accessed 10 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