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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [220v] (443/1814)
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.
260 PERSIA
eminent rascals as are most of their brethren. The mosque
stands on a raised platform at the upper end of a large garden,
which has once been beautifully laid out in terraces, with flower
beds, and tanks, and channels of running water, and which,
though in a state of hopeless decay, is still ovei shadowed by con
siderable trees. Inside the mosque is a single chamber, entered
by a coffered archway, and covered by a large dome. The sacred
stone is inside ; nor is it surprising to find that the Prophet’s foot
marks are of more than ordinary size. All these great men had
huge feet. I have seen Mohammed’s footprint in the Mosque of
Omar at Jerusalem, and Buddha’s footprint on the summit of
Adam’s Peak in Ceylon; and in view of their prodigious magnitude
I was surprised at the modesty of the Imam Peza in having been
content with, comparatively speaking, so temperate a measure
ment. The exterior of the dome has once been covered with tiles ;
but all these have been stripped or have fallen off, though bands
of a still perfect inscription encircle the drum and adorn the facade.
Prom the garden of the mosque the stream flows down the middle
of the roadway past a remarkably statety row of pines, 1 between
the chapar-hhaneh and a large
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
. Above the shrine,
on a hill some 500 feet above the plain, stand the village and fort
of Kadamgah, whilst upon a corresponding hill on the opposite
side of the valley which here opens into the mountains, is perched
an old fortress.
An hour after leaving Kadamgah we entered upon the famous
plain of Nishapur, whose praises have been sung by so many
Plain of chroniclers of the past. Its wonders were expressed in
Nishapur multiples of the number twelve. It was said to have
twelve mines of turquoise, copper, lead, antimony, iron, salt,
marble, and soapstone; twelve ever-running streams from the
hills; 1,200 villages, and 12,000 hanats flowing from 12,000
springs. Gone, irretrievably gone, is all this figurative wealth;
but fertile, though far less fertile than legend has depicted, is still
the plain of Nishapur. Not that fertility in these parts, at any
rate in the late autumn, bears the smallest resemblance to its
English counterpart. There is no visible green except in the
square patches, topped with trees, that mark the villages. But
these occur at intervals of almost every quarter of a mile, and the
1 The seeds or cones from which these pines sprang are said to have been
brought by a pilgrim from the Himalayas nearly four hundred years ago.
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 [220v] (443/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000032> [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