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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [562av] (1139/1814)
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.
142
PERSIA
Colonel D’Arcy, Sir Robert Ker Porter, Baron de Bode, Flandin, and
Mounsey, being among the European visitors who have ascended to it
in this century. It has three arched recesses at the back, each
containing a cavity, the stone slabs that formerly covered which have
either been displaced or broken. None of the sepulchres, with the
exception of that of Darius, which is doubtless the oldest, have any
inscriptions, or present any clue to their identification. No very great
stretch of fancy, however, is required to believe that they were in all
probability constructed by his three successors, Xerxes, Artaxerxes L,
and Darius II. When they were rifled it is impossible to tell.
Of all the Achsemenian sculptures, these on the royal tombs alone
have a purely religious character. At Persepolis, the king walks into
Egyptian P a l ace or audience-hall, or sits in state to receive the
prototype homage of his subjects ; at Bisitun he triumphs over the
rebels against his throne. In both cases he makes acknowledgment to
the divine power. But here he is depicted as engaged in the sacrificial
act, a monarch, but a Mazdean, the lord of mankind, but the servant
of the deity. There is something, alike in the selection of the sepul
chral site, in the mode of interment, and in the external decoration of
the tomb, that is in keeping with the stately pretensions of the
Achsemenian monarchy, and that at the distance of 2,£00 years sounds
in our ears no faint echo of the majesty of the Great King. Among
the royal sepulchres that I have seen in many parts of the world, few
of the fabrics reared by man, and none of those in which nature is
made to play the principal part, are more impressive than these. A
comparison naturally suggests itself with the royal rock-tombs of
Egyptian Thebes ; the more so as in my opinion the idea of the
sepulchral excavations of Naksh-i-Rustam and Persepolis must have
been directly borrowed from the valley of the Nile. The body of Cyrus
was laid, as we have seen, in a raised mausoleum ; where and how
Cambyses was interred we do not positively know ; 1 but Darius,
profiting by the experience of the Egyptian campaign of his pre
decessors, and inspired with recollections, if not actually equipped with
workmen, from the Nile, was content with no meaner resting-place
than one which, while providing for the inviolability of his remains
by the perils of access, should yet display to the world the imperish
able record of his grandeur. Herein lies at once the analogy and the
difference. The rulers of both empires are interred with vast toil and
expense in the hollowed heart of the mountain, where their bodies
should be free from touch or pollution. But whereas the Egyptian
theology prescribes the uttermost concealment of the mummy, and
i Ctesias says his body was taken back is lUptras, an ambiguous phrase upon
which I have previously commented.
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 [562av] (1139/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00008c> [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
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 4r:4v, 31r:32v, 433r:433v, 463r:463v, back-i, front-a, back-a, spine-a, edge-a, head-a, tail-a, front-a-i, 499ar:499av, 562ar:562av, 617ar:617av, 694r:694v, 710r:710v, back-a-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence