![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎189r] (380/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0391.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎189r] (380/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [189r] (380/1814)
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.
r
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 199
to fin nish a mercenary force to the Persian Grovernment. A border
guard is still recruited from them; but, though of Persian descent
and speaking the Persian language, they are credited with a very
dubious fidelity. The Hazaras, on the other hand, never were a
Peisian race. They belong to the Turanian family, as their
Mongolesque features, their crooked eyes, and paucity of beard in
dicate. Some of them are settled in the Meshed district, but the
gieatei number fuither south at Mohsinabad, in the district of
Bakharz. By far their most extraordinary feature is that, though
Peisian neithei in blood, religion, nor affinity, they speak the
Persian tongue. They profess the Sunni Mohammedan faith ; and
although supplying a force of 450 cavalry, entertain feelings of
very questionable loyalty to the Sovereign power.
Next in succession to JMeshed, on the south, come the border
districts of Jam, or Turbat-i-Sheikh-Jam (i.e. the Tomb of Sheikh
Districtsof Jam, a local saint of immense sanctity, who was buried
harz, and here), Bakharz and Khaf, which are at present united under
a single Persian governor of Arab blood, who bears the title
of the Nasrat-el-Mulk, and who from the three districts supplies a
quota of 1,025 cavalry. The bulk of the population under his rule
also belong to one of the Chehar Aimak tribes, but to neither of
those hitherto mentioned. They are of Arab origin, and are called
Timuris, a name which they are said to have derived from the
great Timur, who originally deported them from their native
country in a rage because they had plundered his mother when on
a pilgrimage to Mecca, and who then handed them over as subjects
to an eminent Seyid, to whom also he gave his own daughter in
marriage. There are settlements of Timuris in other parts of
Khorasan, notably near Nishapur and Sebzewar; but the bulk of
the tribe are found in the three border districts, now under dis
cussion. The ill-judged and oppressive policy of the Persian
Government has alienated the sympathies of these along with the
other nomad tribesmen. Indeed, Persia has almost as much reason
in these parts to mistrust her own mercenaries as had the Roman
Empire to doubt its legions of Goths and Gauls. I should add
that the Timuris, like the Hazaras and Jamshidis, are Sunni
Mohammedans.
Further to the south lies the extensive and important district
of Kain, which includes ten beluks or petty governorships, and
stretches as far as the desert that separates Khorasan from Kerman.
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 [189r] (380/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213843.0x0000bb> [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