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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [862v] (1741/1814)
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.
PERSIA
586
Persian sovereigns, viceroys, governors, or vassals, that it is in
habited by a people of Persian rather than Afghan traditions and
sympathies, and that it is severed by no physical or ethnographical
barrier from Meshed. Twice in this century has the cupidity of
Persia for her old possession brought a Persian army to the walls
of the Afghan fortress, entailing on each occasion^ diplomatic
rupture, and on the second open war with Great Britain. Behind
her weak barriers she now sits frightened and sullen, hating but
powerless to prevent the reproach of an Afghan garrison in the
ancient capital of Khorasan. It was to this sense of baffled cupi
dity that Lord Beaconsfield appealed when, in his contemplated
partition of Afghanistan after the war of 1878, he committed the
inexplicable error of proposing once again to hand over Herat to
Persia, thereby giving the lie to one of the few uniform piecepts
that have been observed by Great Britain in her Cential Asian
policy of this century, and forgetting that, in surrendeiing Herat
to the Shah, he was in reality vicariously abandoning the so-called>
‘ Key of India ’ to the tender mercies of the Czar. 1
The ill-feeling between Persian and Afghan was not mended
by the result of the Seistan arbitration, which angered both parties,
and particularly the Amir Shir Ali; nor was it improved after the
last Anglo-Afghan war by the refuge, given under the form of a
veiled incarceration, to Ayub Khan at Teheran. If it has since
slumbered, it is only because Abdur Rahman Khan is too formid
able a neighbour to admit of any tricks being played on the frontier,
and because, weak and vacillating as the Asiatic policy of Great
Britain has been in many respects, it has at least, with the single
exception of Lord Beaconsfield’s blunder, retained consistency in
this—that it has always cried, and would still cry c Hands off tO'
any attempt made by the Shah to regain an Afghan dominion that
perished with Nadir Shah and can never be recovered. It may
1 Lord Beaconsfield’s plan of handing over Herat to Persia was explained by
Sir H. Bawlinson in the Nineteenth Century of February 18S0. General Grodekoff*.
in his Russian book, Tice War in Turhomania, vol. ii. p. 296, quotes the text of
the proposed agreement (as to the accuracy or authenticity of which I am not
able to speak). According to him, Herat was to be surrendered to Persia, an
English resident was to be stationed there, English officers were to be admitted
in order to fortify the city and drill the Persian garrison, no foreign agents were
to be tolerated, and England was to have the right to introduce troops if any
danger threatened the Persian domination. This was an attempt to shift the
responsibility of holding Herat on to the shoulders of Persia, and could only have-
resulted in failure.
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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 [862v] (1741/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00008e> [accessed 2 April 2025]
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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