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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [860v] (1737/1814)
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.
582 PERSIA
venience. A further difficulty is that of remittances, arising 1 , in the
main, from the constantly fluctuating rate of exchange a point in
which the institution of banks in Persia may be expected to
afford some relief. Another is the utter contempt for the most
elementary principles of contract that is freely displayed by the
Persian merchant. The Persian’s conception of a contract is an
agreement which is only to be adhered to if attended with ceitain
profit to himself, but which may be hilariously repudiated if a fall
in prices or some other oscillation in the market renders his own
share in the bargain one of dubious issue. He will call upon the
other party to the contract, and coolly inform him over several cups
of coffee and amid repeated kalians, that he declines to take the
articles agreed upon, which have very likely been ordered all the way
from. England, and are perhaps on the verge of arriving at their
destination. 1 No scruples of morality, no stings of remorse, not
even any fear of the consequences, affect the complacent egoism of the
Persian trader; and in the absence either of any code of commercial
honour or of any tribunals for enforcing legal obligations, the
deluded merchant must grin and bear it. Sometimes no excuse
whatever is forthcoming. I bought some articles myself of a dealer
for the sum of 200 krans. Upon my sending the next day to
inquire why they had not been delivered, the reply was returned
that the owner had repented of the bargain and refused to part
with them for less than 400 hrans. Fraudulent bankruptcies,
effected under the sanction of a mujtailed who has been bribed, are
another favourite device of the Persian who is reluctant to pay.
In fact, a commercial law, however rudimentary, is greatly needed
to protect foreigners in their dealings with this amiable but hyper-
ingenious people.
Such, so far as I have been able to appraise them, are the
present aspect and partition of Persian commerce. If we turn to
The future ^ ie ^ ure > ^ ie ol Alook, from an English point of view r
may be regarded as eminently encouraging. The im
provement of ports, if ever undertaken, the construction of roads
That the Persians change not in this respect may be illustrated by a passage
from the letter of Lawrence Chapman, one of the factors of the Russia Company
in their fourth venture upon the revived British Caspian trade in 1568. He wrote :
‘ Such is the constancie of all men in this countrey, with whomsoever you shall
bargen. If. the ware be bought, and they doe mislike it afterwardes, they will
bring it againe, and compell you to deliver the money for it againe, regarding the
Shawgh’s (Shah’s) letter, which manifesteth the contrary, as a straw in the winde/
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 [860v] (1737/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00008a> [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