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'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎16v] (37/616)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (306 folios ). It was created in 1903. It was written in English and French. 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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8 THE PERSIAN ASPECT OF THE PROBLEM
caught up and overwhelmed in the vortex of inter
national ambitions, which she could neither escape nor
control.
Up to quite the end of the eighteenth century Persia
had never been seriously thought of in Europe as a
political factor. All that was known of her had been
learnt from the narratives — singularly copious and
romantic—of the merchant adventurers who had from
time to time sought more or less successfully to open
up trade relations with her from Western Europe.
Curiously enough it was the British " Moscovy Com
pany " that first attempted, in the days when Ivan the
Terrible reigned at Moscow and the good Queen Bess
over these islands, to tap the trade of Persia in British
interests by way of the Volga and the Caspian in
competition with the Portuguese galleons that already
sailed the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . There are few stranger pages
of history when read in the light of the present situation
than the records of that Company and of its successor,
the British Russia Company, which for two centuries
applied themselves repeatedly, and with fluctuating
fortunes, to conquer the markets of Persia for British
trade from a Russian base. Their ultimate failure
coincides with the period when British enterprise, which
had been seeking access for some time past both from
the Mediterranean and from India to the southern
markets of Persia, at last succeeded in securing a strong
foothold on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The British Caspian
trade was abolished by a decree of the Empress
Catherine of Russia in 1746, and the last English
factories in Northern Persia were abandoned in 1749.
In 1763 the Shah Kerim Khan issued a solemn firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’).
to "the Right Worshipful William Andrew Price,
Esquire, Governor-General for the English nation in

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Content

The volume, written by Valentine Chirol and printed in London by John Murray in 1903, is based on a series of letters written by Chirol during a journey through Persia and the Persian Guf, that appeared in The Times in 1902 and 1903.

The main topics are: the concept of 'Middle East'; the Baghdad Railway; the British role in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; the Russian influence over Persia; the border of Afghanistan; the North-East Frontier of India, and Tibet. An appendix at the back of the volume contains copies of international treaties, and documents in French on the Baghdad Railway.

The volume contains numerous illustrations and three maps:

  • 'Sketch Map of the Borderlands of India';
  • 'Sketch Map of Asia showing railway expansion';
  • 'Sketch map of Persia and adjoining countries'.
Extent and format
1 volume (306 folios )
Physical characteristics

The foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover, and terminates at the inside back cover; 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. The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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'The Middle Eastern question or some political problems of Indian defence' [‎16v] (37/616), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/G43, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023644752.0x000026> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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