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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎772v] (1561/1814)

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. .

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PERSIA
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Climate
rocks, seem literally to scorch, and the rocks themselves are like
the walls of a brazen oven.
The climate of Muscat in summer is, indeed, an exceptional
horror, and has tested alike the vocabulary and the imagination of
the most fanciful writers. John Struys, the Dutchman,,
who was here in 1672, said that it was ‘ so incredible
hot and Scorching that strangers are as if they were in boiling
cauldrons or in sweating-tubs. ? But his description pales before
the rhetorical flights of the worthy Abdur Bezak, before quoted,
who in May 1442 had left on record that
The heat was so intense that it burned the marrow in the bones ;
the sword in its scabbard melted like wax, and the gems which adorned
the handle of the dagger were reduced to coal. In the plains the
chase became a matter of perfect ease, for the desert was filled with
roasted gazelles . 1
Of more practical value as evidence will be the statement that in
the heats between June and August, the ordinary thermometer
bursts, and that those graded high enough have placed the solar
radiation at 189° Fahr. The rainfall is only three and a half inches
in the year, and the whole of this falls within a period of two or
three weeks.
The town itself is one of no size or pretentiousness. The
Sultan’s house can scarcely be designated a palace. Inside the
City and gateway a fine lion is kept in a cage on the one side. A
people miserable woman was immured in a similar den upon the
other, and was said to have committed a murder. I asked whether
this ominous juxtaposition portended the approaching doom of the
culprit; but was relieved to hear that murder was by no means
regarded in Oman as an offence deserving so bloody a retribution.
I he bazaar at Muscat is small and very narrow, there being barely
room to pass in the alleys. Hindus monopolise the more respect
able shops. Natives were busily engaged in cooking hulwah, a
glutinous compound of clarified butter (y/if), flour, sugar, and water,
flavoured with grated almonds or pistachios, which resembles half-
melted butter-scotch, and is greedily consumed by the Arab stomach.
Every man carried in his belt a small dagger with curving blade j
and scabbard richly ornamented with silver, and most were armed
in addition with immensely long single-barrelled matchlock guns,
also silver-plated, and with deer s hide bound round their stocks^
India in the Fifteenth Century (Hakluyt Society), p. 9.

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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎772v] (1561/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x0000a2> [accessed 14 June 2026]

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