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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [876v] (1769/1814)
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.
614
PERSIA
the line, whatever the weather, until they meet at the point of dis
location, which is immediately repaired. These duties, in addition
to the obligation of being present at the instrument for the purpose
of testing at fixed hours between sunrise and sunset, render the ]ot
of the English telegraphist in Persia, even though personal danger
need not now be feared, by no means a bed of roses. His service
is for thirty years, at the end of which time he retires upon a
pension equivalent to half-pay.
From these details, which, though to some extent technical, are
not deficient in interest, 1 I turn to an examination of the effect
influence has been produced upon, and in, Persia itself by the
upon telegraphic system and establishment that. I have de
scribed. This effect has been fourfold, and from whichever
point of view we regard its operation, the influence of the telegraph
has been enormous. I am disposed to attribute to it, more than
to any other cause or
agency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent.
, the change that has passed over
Persia during the last thirty years, and the results of which I have
chronicled in these volumes. To begin with, the telegraph for the
first time brought Persia into contact with Europe, with the result
of making her a member of the comity of nations. Europe learned
to be interested in the distant country of which hitherto she knew
little beyond the fact that it was the degenerate heir of the glories
of Cyrus and Darius. Persia, on the other hand, became acquainted
with European constitutions, customs, and standards, and whilst
retaining an unshaken belief in her own ineffable superiority,
discerned both the charm of novelty and the force of example
in her new discovery, whose superficial characteristics she
proceeded with imitative facility to absorb. Eut for the electric
telegraph she would have lingered drowsily on, plunged
in the self-satisfied stupor from which how many an Oriental
kingdom and khanate has only been aroused to find itself upon the
brink of doom, and would have rotted slowly away until the
Muscovite trumpet rang its final summons in her ear, and Europe
was invited as a spectator to the funeral feast. Whatever of civili
sation, or reform, or regeneration has been introduced into Persia
For the history of the introduction of the telegraph into Persia, vide Sir F..
Goldsmid, Telegraph and Travel, 1874; Report of Parliamentary Committee on
Last India Communications, 1866 ; and papers by J. R. Preece in Journal of the
Society of Tel. Engineers, 1879; and Sir R. M. Smith in Scottish Geographical:
Mag., January 1889.
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 [876v] (1769/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x0000aa> [accessed 11 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