![Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎334r] (670/1814)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001491.0x00033b/Mss Eur F111_33_0681.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "Annotated Copy of <em>Persia and the Persian Question</em> by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎334r] (670/1814)")
Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [334r] (670/1814)
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 GOVERNMENT
439
governor engages to pay to the Shah a sum in excess of that
mentioned in the Mtabcheh—the prolonged duration of peace
having increased the general productiveness of the whole country ,
such, sum being determined by the competing bribes of the several
candidates, one of whom will perhaps undertake to pay to the
Crown 30,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
above the official assessment (m order to
cut out the existing governor, who may only be giving 20,000),
and will presently find himself outbidden by a third, who offers
40,00J3. Every post of any importance in Persia being, m theory,
tenable only for one year, and being renewable at the annual
festival of the vernal equinox or No Ruz, then comes the moment
at which the most minute and delicate calculation of the requisite
bribe prevails. I extract the following account of the system m
its actual operation from the excellent report upon the condition
of modern Persia, contributed to Petermanns Vlittheilungen m
1885, by Messrs. Andreas and Stolze, who were themselves for
some years in official or other employment in Persia
Every official has to purchase his appointment and to pay for his
continuance in office by a present once a year, frequently almost equiva
lent to the salary that he receives. To this rule there are few excep
tions, from the governor of a province, whose present goes direct into
“the private purse of the Shah, down to the lowest servant of an under
governor. The governors of provinces are required eveiy year to pay
in to the government the taxes of their provinces at a sum determined
at the beginning of the spring equinox. Now, by law each has the
right of levying a certain sum beyond—the Hak-el-Hukumah. All
this, however, will go in presents to the Shah and Ministers. He is,
therefore, compelled, for the maintenance of his own state and house
hold, to extort a much higher sum still. Careful investigations,
instituted in Ears, during the several years’ government of the
Motemed-ed-Dowleh—justly celebrated as the best governor in the
country, under whom Ears attained its zenith of order and prosperity
—showed that, instead of the prescribed 6,360,000 francs, 10,000,000
francs were collected. It is an open secret in Persia that the excess
■of levies averages at least 66 § per cent. The method of collection is as
follows. The sub-governors (zabit) have to deliver in instalments to
their respective superiors on each occasion a higher sum than is entered
on the tax-roll (kitabcheh). They, in their turn, receive the taxes
from the different heads of districts (kalantars), and these from the
village magistrates ; the collector at each stage paying in more than 1
1 Die Handelsvevhaltnisse Persiens, by F. Stolze and F. C. Andreas.
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 [334r] (670/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213845.0x00004d> [accessed 10 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