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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [239v] (481/1814)
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.
c si
286
PERSIA
we rode through the ruins of a deserted city ? Bostajan. A more-
sorrowful spectacle than an abandoned town of mud cannot be
conceived. The buildings, and roofs, and walls gradually waste
away into indistinguishable heaps of clay ; but, so compact and solid
do these become in the process, that they last for scores, and some
times for hundreds, of years. Nor is it fair to assume that, along
with each deserted city or site, its inhabitants, as an item in the
population, have been wiped off the face of the earth. Were such
the case, one might be led to infer that Persia, which is now as
sparsely peopled as Palestine, was once as densely crowded as China.
I believe that this would be a false inference. Just as each great
Persian monarch or founder of a dynasty, from Cyrus downwards,
has shifted the capital and seat of government, so as to associate
a fresh glory with his name, so has each petty governor or chief
tain striven to emulate his sovereign by a new urban plantation;
and, in a yet lower grade, each father of a family has thought to
better himself and to transcend his forerunners by erecting a new
abode. It is to this universal instinct, permeating every rank of
life, not less than to the ravages of famine, disease, and war, that
must be attributed the countless wasting skeletons of tenements
and cities that litter the soil of Persia.
From a distance of some miles the two minarets of Damghan, the
counterparts of that of Sebzewar, rise in view. They stand some
way apart, in different quarters of the town. The better
preserved of the two, which is mountable and has a
Damghan
small turret of later date at the top, with a door for the muezzin,
is situated just off the main street of the town, and is in close
proximity to a mosque—not, indeed, that to which it was originally
attached, but a comparatively modern structure. Like the minar
at Sebzewar, it is faced with bricks, so laid as to form geometrical
patterns on the circumference, and has, further, a band of Kufic
letters in high relief. The two minarets belong to the imamzadehs y
or tombs of two saints, named respectively Jahr and Kasim ; and,
for an account of their shrines, as well of a third tomb raised over
a saint named Mohammed, the son of Ibrahim, and called Pir-i-
Alamdar, I cannot do better than refer my readers to the erudite
pages of Khanikoff. 1 Damghan, though a considerable place, even
Memoire, fyc., pp. 74-75. Bassett {Land of the Imams, p. 197) commits the
absurd mistake of saying that the minars are called Chehil Sutune and Maschide
Jam. The former name—i.e. ‘ forty pillars’—is a common descriptive epithet in.
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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 [239v] (481/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213844.0x000058> [accessed 9 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