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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎861r] (1738/1814)

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. .

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COMMERCE AND TRADE
583
already begun, the introduction of railways in the more distant
future, will all of them swell the totals of Persian, and in
particular of Anglo-Persian, trade. I have sometimes wondered
whether more might not be done by individual enterprise to develop
so promising a business. One of the most familiar Russian
methods is an exhibition of Russian manufactures, skilfully col
lected and tastefully arranged, in some Oriental city still a com
parative stranger to the implements and luxuries of the West.
Why should not an exhibition of British and Indian products be
held in Teheran ? Delegates from Chambers of Commerce, com
mercial travellers, or trained middlemen, seem rarely, if ever, to
include Persia within the sphere of their activity; and yet I know
no country where a more watchful and instructed scrutiny is
required to keep pace with the capricious movements of local
fashion. The breadth of a strip, the structure of a pattern, the
gradation of a colour, the width of a line, all these are of vital
importance to so fastidious, and in a sense aesthetic, a people as the
Persians. Moreover, taste and habit vary with the locality. What
is stylish here is unacceptable there. What is popular to-day may
be tabooed to-morrow. With a due regard for such local idiosyncra
sies, and with a continuance of the larger enterprise that has already
achieved such praiseworthy results, Great Britain may expect no
mean consequences from the future of Persian trade.
Note on the Cabavan-routes oe Pack-roads of Persia.
To the analysis of the varions avenues of trade entry into Persia, given in the
above chapter, I subjoin a table of the stages or number of days into which the
principal caravan tracks in the country are divided, and which I have taken from
a pamphlet by Dr. Polak (1883). His figures, however, while fairly accurate with
regard to the distance-divisions, require a slight addition, if regarded as a mea
surement of time, the muleteers insisting upon a halt of a few days whenever
they come to a large town or city e?i route. Thus, the stages between Bushire-
Shiraz, Shiraz-Isfahan, and Isfahan-Teheran, if added together, do not accurately
represent the time occupied by a caravan in marching from the Gulf to the
capital, a few days’ repose being interpolated at Shiraz and Isfahan. The same
applies to any route of tolerable length.
-d , No. of stages
Route or days
1. Julfa-Tabriz ... 4
2. Tabriz-Teheran (^vid Mianeh.
Zinjan, Kazvin). . . 14-16
3. Teheran-Isfahan (via Kum,
Kashan) .... 10-12
4. Isfahan-Shiraz (via Kumi-
sheh, Yezdikhast, Dehbid) 12
, No. of stages
Route ^ or days &
Isfahan-Shiraz (via the
summer route from Yezdi
khast) .... 10
Shiraz-Bushire (via Kazerun) 10
Teheran-Meshed (via Sem-
nan, Shahrud, Nishapur) . 22
Teheran-Resht (via Kazvin) 9-10

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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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎861r] (1738/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00008b> [accessed 8 June 2026]

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