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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [884v] (1785/1814)
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.
630
PERSIA
still of good cheer. In the first place, barren and naked as much
of the country is to the outward eye, the soil remains the same, and
„ „ is in its intrinsic capacities one of the finest in the world,
good It was by water that its former fertility was produced •
and by water this can again be conjured into exis
tence. hto physical or climatic change has passed over lersia
sufficient to replace productiveness and verdure by a permanent
sterility; and in fifty years, by a proper economy of water supply,
and with less primitive methods of tillage, the cultivable area
might be doubled. Again, defenceless as the frontiers of I ersia
now are, in the absence of any army capable of utilising their
enormous advantages for defence, she yet possesses in her moun
tains and ravines the most magnificent natural ramparts, which
Providence would seem to have conferred upon her for her own
protection. Similarly, stagnant though public spirit in Persia may
be, and happy in its stagnation, nerveless and craven though the
manhood of the people may have become, under a system of
government which has allowed no scope for enterprise or indepen
dence, there is yet in the Iranian character that unconquerable'
and lighthearted vitality which has caused her people to be dubbed
the Frenchmen of the East, which has kept them a nation in the
face of repeated invasion and disaster for over 2,000 years, which
has enabled them to conquer and to absorb their conquerors, instead
of being obliterated by them, and which gives them, even in their
decay, a certain strange homogeneity that no nation in the world,
so externally weak, can claim in an equal degree. Even in his
misery the Persian peasant is not a pauper; even in its decay the
national manhood is not extinct. Feeble as an ally and impotent
as a foe though Persia has become, she is not despicable; nor,
though her administration is rotten, is it incapable of reform ; nor,
because the army is at present valueless, is it to be ignored or de
spised under a purer TscjiifYie. Atbove all we must remember that
the ways of Orientals are not our ways, nor their thoughts our
thoughts. Often when we think them backward and stupid, they
think us meddlesome and absurd. The loom of time moves slowly
with them, and they care not for high pressure and the roaring ofi
the wheels. Our system may be good for us; but it is neither
'■equally, noi altogether good for them. Satan found it better to reign
m hell than to serve in heaven ; and the normal Asiatic would
sooner be misgoverned by Asiatics than well governed by Euro-
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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 [884v] (1785/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x0000ba> [accessed 6 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