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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [858r] (1732/1814)
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
577
vessels navigating the Shat-el-Arab, or over the Persian ports on
its left bank although I fancy that this was merely made the
pretext for an act of incivility to the Persians and to Moham-
merah m particular, of the rising fortunes of which the Turks at
Busrak are intensely jealous, inasmuch as it must in the future
divert a considerable part of the Persian trade that now passes
through their voracious maw. In entering upon my travels, I
narrated in my second chapter a fair sample of the amenities of
Ottoman officialdom at Constantinople. In bringing them to a
close I am compelled again to record that, for wanton obstructive
ness and petty bureaucratic malevolence, no such people within my
experience exists on the face of the globe.
Figui es are almost as hard to procure from Turks as from
I ersians, mid no statistics have ever been published of the volume
Figures of or va ^ ue ^ ie Persian transit trade passing through
S? Baghdad. During my stay in that city, however, I pro
cured from the best possible source the following estimate,
which I was enabled to verify, and which, in respect of imports, I
found to be substantially correct. From 20,000 to 25,000 laden
mules annually enter and leave Baghdad upon this line. The
goods imported by sea for Persian destinations which they carry,
may be approximately classified as follows : Manufactures, chiefly
Manchester piece goods, but also Continental woollen and cotton
fabrics, 7,000 to 8,000 loads, valued at 150,000 Turkish liras ; 1
Indian manufactures, 1,000 loads, valued at 20,000 liras ; drugs,
metals, &c.—comprising pepper, coffee, tea, sugar, indigo, cochineal,
copper, and spelter—7,000 loads, valued at 100,000 liras ; loaf-
sugar, principally from Marseilles, 6,000 loads, valued at 30,000
liras. Total value, 300,000 Turkish liras, or 270,000L Upon the
assumption that every laden mule that left Baghdad for Persia had
previously come into it from Persia, and that the imports and ex
ports adjusted their values, my Baghdad informant fixed the value
of Persian exports passing through that city for despatch by land
or sea (chiefly wool, cotton, carpets, opium, gum, dried fruits), or,
for local consumption (such as tobacco, ghi, dried and fresh fruits),
at the same figure, viz., 300,000 Turkish liras, or 270,000/. Upon
the same assumption, by which the total Persian transit trade
would amount to 540,000/., he estimated it as constituting nearly
a quarter of the entire trade of Baghdad, which is reckoned at
1 The Turkish lira = 18s., or 13§
rupees
Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf.
, or 34 Jirans.
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 [858r] (1732/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x000085> [accessed 13 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