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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [849v] (1715/1814)
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.
560
PERSIA
noticed that she is singularly deficient m those materials w ic , m
the eyes of the West, constitute the necessities and still more the
comforts of civilised life. She makes little or no sugar, she grows
neither coffee nor tea ; and yet she consumes enormous quantities of
the first and last, and a considerable quantity of the second. Her
own oil-wells being untapped, her streets and houses are lit by
Russian or American kerosine. Though believed to possess t re
precious metals in sufficient quantity to repay the working, she
imports all her silver and gold. As long as her own copper and
iron mines lie untested, the one must be purchased m sheets,
the other in bars. It is a dismal reflection that, while every
district in Persia is reported to possess its copper mine, barely a
single cooking pot is made of the native metal. Hardware, cutleiy,
glassware, crockery, and porcelain-—all these must be introduced
into a country which can only work iron in the rudest fashion,
which makes no glass, and which has all but lost the ceramic art.
The assumption of European tastes carries with it the consumption
of European wines, spirits, and liqueurs. The Persians are emi
nently a race of sportsmen, and, for all above the middle grades,
arms and ammunition must be procured from the West. Jewellery,
clocks, and watches are a further concomitant, if not a sine qua
non, of civilisation. A Persian Minister or nobleman must possess
his victoria or his brougham, and who ever heard of such a
vehicle being built in the country ? Finally, there is the illimit
able department of dress, affecting both sexes and all classes, from
the sovereign to the cultivator of the soil. Silks, satins, and
broad cloth are the indispensable luxuries of the upper classes ;
prints, shirtings, and cotton fabrics are worn by all. The humblest
peasant is clothed from Manchester or Moscow ; the indigo that
dyes the hood which his wife draws so closely round her ill-favoured
physiognomy has been shipped from Bombay. Persia, in fact, from
the highest to the lowest grade, is absolutely dependent upon the
West; whence, perhaps, it arises that she struggles with such
fanatical energy against an influence of which she wears the
external signs, but which in her heart of hearts she abhors.
The main feeding grounds of Persian needs are Great Britain,
Russia, France, Germany, Austria, and India. Roughly speaking,
Foreign the imports from Great Britain may be said to consist of
calicoes, chintzes, white and grey shirtings, Mexican or
'T-cloths, Turkey-red twills, broad cloth, copper, crockery, candles,
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 [849v] (1715/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000074> [accessed 9 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