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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [868v] (1753/1814)
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.
K3I
598 PERSIA
Seas, and to secure the long-sought base for naval operations in
the east. This can only be accomplished in either of two dhections
— by a war with Turkey and the capture of Baghdad, or by a semi
peaceful advance through Persia to the Gulf. Of these piocesses
the second is the more hopeful and the less risky, and there is a
fascination about its beckoning finger that draws the Russians
irresistibly on. Here, again, lest it should be thought that I am
wronging Russia by an insinuation of designs so incompatible with
her general assurances, let me invite any injuied paitisan
of that country to make inquiries in the E oreign Office at St.
Petersburg as to whether, at the time that the Ruropatkin
memorandum was penned, a secret agreement was not either con
cluded or sought to be concluded with the fehah, by which the
advance of a Russian column into Khorasan was to be followed by
the cession to Russia of the Gulf port of Bunder Abbas; and whether
the most recent railroad concession pressed for by Russian agents
at Teheran did not postulate a maritime outlet at Chahbar, on the
coast of Persian Beluchistan.
The solid advantages possessed by Russia in Persia, and the
easy execution of her ambitious, but (if probabilities be fairly
Russian weighed) not altogether extravagant schemes, appear to
tactics p e q U R e needlessly discounted in that country by tactics
that exhibit a marked contrast to her general bonhomie and
affability in dealing with Oriental peoples. Perhaps the theory
is that amiability ought only to follow upon acquisition, and
severity to go before. Her representatives and agents in Persia
assume so dictatorial a tone, that, while it may impress, it cannot
conciliate. It is notorious that the late Russian Minister at Teheran
on several occasions gave great offence by his curt demeanour. I
have elsewhere recalled the fact that rather more than two years ago
a diplomatic squall was raised about the institution of a Russian
Consul-General at Meshed. Upon that occasion the officer in
question was actually nominated and his appointment gazetted in
the St. Petersburg newspapers before the Shah was informed or
applied to for an exsec^ucctuT. Upon his declining for a while to
grant the latter—a very natural and dignified step—the real
feeling of the Russians towards Persia glimmered out in an in
cautious note of fury from the c Novoe Vremya ’: ‘ This refusal is
almost without a paiallel in the history of Russian diplomacy, and
is the moie insulting as coming from Persia, a country with a
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 [868v] (1753/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00009a> [accessed 22 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