Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [870r] (1756/1814)
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
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BRITISH AND RUSSIAN POLICY IN PERSIA
601
moment into her egotistical calculations. The institution of the
Imperial Bank of Persia in 1889 received no aid from Russian
sources, but on the contrary has been consistently thwarted by that
Power; and the number of railway schemes which successive
Russian Ministers have received instructions to oppose would
fill a respectable obituary column in the c Times. 5 I have pre
viously noticed the twofold check more recently imposed by Russian
influence upon the experiment of railway development in Persia,
in the shape of the prohibitory agreement exacted, first for five,
and afterwards for ten years, by the Russian Minister at Teheran,
whereby no line can be laid anywhere in the country during that
period without the Czar’s consent; a document upon which 1 have
placed the frank interpretation that it is obstructive, and nothing
else. I will go further and state again, with knowledge of what
I am saying, that no single scheme for the material or industrial
amelioration of Persia has been proposed in the last twenty years
that has not provoked, and too often been crushed by, Russian
antagonism. Over 150 years ago the apocryphal will of Peter the
Great, which, though of spurious origin, yet enshrines with ad
mirable fidelity the leading principles that have guided the Asiatic
policy of his countrymen ever since, contained these words :
■ Hasten the decadence of Persia, penetrate to the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
,
re-establish the ancient commerce of the
Levant
A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
, and advance to
the Indies, which are the treasure-house of the world.’ As regards
Persia, a truer definition of Russian policy could not be given.
Her desire truly is, not that Persia should be emancipated, but
that the chains of servitude should be riveted closer upon her
neck ; not that she should become a useful ally, but that she should
fall an easy victim; not that her political vitality should be
resuscitated, but that it should rot and decay. If I cast an unfair
aspersion upon the integrity of Russia’s designs, it is entirely
within her own power, by a more generous policy in the future, to
falsify the accusation.
Neither can I feel any sympathy with Russia in her lust for
territorial aggrandisement, at the expense of Persia, in the north.
to the outraged dignity of Russia: ( 1 ) the free navigation of the Enzeli Lagoon
and of the rivers flowing into the Caspian (only one of which, the Sefid Rud, is
navigable) ; ( 2 ) the construction of wharves and depots ; ( 3 ) the construction of
a proper road fromPir-i-Bazaar to Teheran; ( 4 ) the construction of the Ashkabad-
Kuchan road ; ( 5 ) the Five Years’ Railway refusal. Ihe two last-named, any
how, axe faits accomplis.
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 [870r] (1756/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x00009d> [accessed 12 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
![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎870r] (1756/1814) Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎870r] (1756/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_1786.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg)