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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [441v] (885/1814)
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.
630
PERSIA
pierced or crossed by a railway at an expenditure out of all propor
tion to the probable return. The fact that Bushire, in spite of its
scanty recommendations as a harbour, is the principal trading port
on the south coast, has tempted people to suppose that it must be
the necessary terminus of a Trans-Persian line and to ignore the
physical obstacles of which I have spoken. The existence and pro
bable exploitation of a far easier and more advantageous avenue of
entry a little further to the west will relegate the Bushire-Shiraz
proposal to the limbo from which it ought never to have emerged.
The objections that render impracticable this particular section of
the trunk line from north to south do not, of course, apply to a
line from Teheran to Isfahan, which is quite feasible, and may
possibly be realised in the future.
The easier and more commodious route, to which I have alluded,
is, of course, that from the upper waters of the Karun river, through
11 . Mo- the big towns of the grain-producing provinces of West
Burajira^' P ers i a direction of the capital. There appears to
Teheran he a consensus of opinion that the railroad most likely to
pay in Persia would be one starting from Shushter (or, perhaps,
more probably from Mohammerah), and running northwards
through the Lur country to Khorremabad and Burujird, whence,
on the one hand, connection would be easily established with Ker-
manshah or Hamadan on the line from Baghdad to Teheran, and,
on the other, via Sultanabad with Kum, and thence with the
capital. The new southern port of Persia would be several
hundred miles nearer to the capital, and even to Isfahan, than
is Bushire, and would be separated from neither by any such
impracticable barrier as the hotals of the Shiraz-Bushire caravan
road. Furthermore, besides attracting to itself the export and
import trade of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, such a line would traverse one
of the richest corn-growing regions of Persia, would serve large
cities, and open up a new approach from the south and the sea to as
far north as Azerbaijan. In other words, local would be super-
added to foreign traffic; and from their united proceeds a surplus
ought in time to be struck out. Nor, as I have indicated in speaking
of the road at present in course of construction along the same line,
should the prospects of passenger traffic on such a railway be over
looked. In Persia, the principal streams of human movement are
those that circulate between the shrines and tombs of the famous
dead. The access to no fewer than five such holy resorts would be
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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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- 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