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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [159r] (320/1814)
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.
FROM KUCHAN TO KELAT-I-NADIRI 143
of communication from valley to valley. These gorges are
frequently of almost inconceivable abruptness and grandeur.
Each one presents a score of positions of absolute impregnability ;
and I do not suppose that more savage mountain scenery, in zones
below the snow line, exists anywhere in the world. The base of
these defiles seldom admits more than a torrent bed blocked with
enormous boulders, and the walls are frequently vertical to a height
of from 500 to 1,000 feet. The higher mountains rarely display
even the scantiest vegetation, being sterile, stony, and forbidding
to a degree, though the loftiest peaks are majestic with splintered
outline, and occasionally some astonishing natural phenomenon
is encountered, like the southern wall of Kelat. Cultivation is
almost wholly confined to the valley bottoms, and is there depen
dent upon precarious streams and watercourses dug therefrom
to the arable plots. Each village is like an oasis in a brown
desert; and the squalid mud huts, with their fringe of green
poplars and orchards, present an appearance almost as refreshing
to the wayfarer as the snuggest of English homesteads.
The ordinary beasts of burden in these mountain villages are
very small grey donkeys, camels being only seen when belonging
to a caravan, and a horse being beyond the means of the
andhuman poorer people. The arid hill slopes provide a slender
lite herbage that sustains large flocks of black sheep and
goats, which are met with everywhere, guarded by big dogs.
Mutton is consequently cheap and abundant. Rude wooden
ploughs unshod with iron are drawn by yokes of black oxen; but
cows and milk are not to be met with in every village. Fowls
abound, and can be always bought for about od. apiece. The
vallev of Kuchan revels in every kind of fruit, but further north
* I was not able to procure any. Rice appeared to be the staple
food of the peasantry. These struck me as a fine and masculine
race, and as a very different type from the Persian of the towns.
They spring for the most part from a different stock, being not of
Iranian, but of Turkoman or Turkish origin, and are far more like
the Uzbegs or Tartars in appearance than the Persians. They wore
sheepskin bonnets on their heads, not unlike those of the Turko
mans, but less lofty in the crown, canvas bound round their legs
with thongs, and big loose shoes of untanned cowhide similarly
attached. The women were everywhere visible, but, as a rule,
carefully concealed their features, not with a veil, but with the
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 [159r] (320/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x00007f> [accessed 4 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