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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [299r] (600/1814)
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.
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES 375
a resident at the seaport of Enzeli for the management of the
silk trade of Gilan.’ This is Forster’s version. Han way, who was
in Gilan within ten years of the evacuation, assigns as the true
reason the pernicious effect of the climate. ‘ The warmth and
dampness of Ghilan, together with the unwholesome fruits, ren
dered that province the grave of the Russians, for which reason
the Empress Anne very prudently consented to evacuate the
country in 1734, without drawing any advantage from it . 51 Wat
son, quoting from a
writer
The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping.
in c Blackwood’s Magazine 5 (vol. xxi.)
says that Astrabad and Mazanderan had already been restored to
Persia by a treaty concluded at Resht in 1732 ; and that a farther
treaty restored Gilan in 1735—statements which, if correct, would
absolutely dispose of any claim that Russia may subsequently have
felt disposed to make on the ground of the original concession.
There is a fourth version of the epilogue, which may be supposed to
reflect the view that might commend itself to a patriotic Persian,
whose amour projpre could admit neither the voluntary occupation,
nor the peaceful retreat. According to this version Nadir Shah,
having obtained the throne, sent an imperious ultimatum to the
Russian commander, that unless the Russians disappeared from the
scene, he (Nadir) would send his ferashes (lit. carpet-spreaders),
to sweep them into the sea. It is the obvious sequel of this story,
which is probably of later construction, that the Russians em
barked with great precipitation, and were no more seen. In 1746
the only relic of their occupation of the coast strip was a
factory
An East India Company trading post.
at Enzeli, and a commercial agent at Derbend.
That Shah Tahmasp himself attached very little validity to the
treaty with Peter the Great, had already been shown in 1730, in
Later which year he made a grant of Mazanderan, along with
history Khorasan, Seistan, and Kerman to Nadir, as a reward
for the expulsion of the Afghans. The condition of the two mari
time provinces during the latter part of Nadir Shah’s reign, the
oppression and misery and ruin that everywhere prevailed, are
admirably depicted in Hanway’s pages, from which we learn how
a national hero soon transformed himself into an intolerable curse,
for whose removal men prayed almost in public. In the anarchy
consequent upon Nadir’s assassination, a local chief named Hidayet
Khan raised himself and the province of Gilan to a position of
practical independence. When Kerim Khan Zend attained the
1 Historical Account, vol. i. p. 12.
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 [299r] (600/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x000007> [accessed 6 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