![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎863r] (1742/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1772.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎863r] (1742/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [863r] (1742/1814)
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.
^ssals
llai > garrison in |
ense °f baffled
in his co
^ he committed fc
hand over Hem i,
BRITISH AND RUSSIAN POLICY IN PERSIA
587
cupj.
' v uniform
precepts
her Central
surrendering fa
loning tie socaiy
sar. 1
u was not mended
igered both parties,
improved after tie
ider the form of a
n. If it has since
han is too formid-
red on the frontier,
tic policy of Great
st, with the single
ied consistency ii
cry i Hands off -
dan dominion that
‘covered, h
be added that the haughty and truculent soldiery of the Amir look
with unconcealed contempt upon the Persian serbaz, and that the
ranks of Eastern armies do not anywhere provide a more speaking*
contrast than the tattered Persian regular and the bearded braggart
who wears the uniform of Abdur Rahman Khan.
Touching the relations of Persia and Turkey, though the two
countries have not been at war for over half a century, and though
Turkey ^ ^ mnie ^ ate sources of provocation to either are less
striking or numerous, yet the hereditary enmity of cen
turies still rankles, and it is with keen pleasure that Shah or Sultan
witnesses a rebuff administered to Stambul or to Teheran. It
was this jealousy rather than the reasons alleged to the public that
accounted for the omission of Constantinople from the last European
tour of Nasr-ed-Din. In times past the balance of advantage has
been fairly equalised. If Persian forces have held Baghdad, Turkish
armies have stormed and captured Tabriz. The Treaty of Erzerum,
concluded in 1847, is the basis of the existing peace between
the two countries ; but the indeterminate state of the long Turco-
Persian frontier from Mount Ararat to the Shat-el-Arab is both, as
I have shown, the source of recurrent squabbles, and might at any
time be magnified into a casus belli. The divided j urisdiction over
the Kurds is a further element of trouble, which in the rebellion of
Sheikh Obeidullah in 1884 nearly burst into a flame. In the south
the rising fortunes of Mohammerah are as gall and wormwood to
the Turks of Busrah and Baghdad, and how amiable the interchange
of official civilities between the two powers can be my chapters on
the Karun River and the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
will have shown. Fortu
nately for peace, neither Persia nor Turkey in Asia is a country
that can afford to fight; and the rivalry between the two powers
seldom gets beyond petty territorial thieving and diplomatic
recrimination.
In turning to the connection of Persia with the policies of
Russia and Great Britain, and more especially of the latter—a
Russia subject which has rarely been absent from my mind’s
aaid Great eye in the composition of this work—I cannot better
emphasise the commanding claim which I conceive it to
possess upon the attention of Englishmen than by quoting the
language employed by Sir H. Bawlinson in the preface to his
statesmanlike essays: —
The political affairs of a second-rate Oriental power like Persia
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 [863r] (1742/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00008f> [accessed 5 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