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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [477r] (964/1814)
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.
FKOM TEHERAN TO ISFAHAN
3
Abdul Azim gate, passed the shrine of that name, and proceeded
to the village of Kinaregird (i.e. Border-town), soon after which
it entered a succession of barren and gloomy defiles known as the
Malek-el-Maut Bareli, or Valley of the Angel of Death, 1 so called
because the superstitious fancies of the Persians infested it with
jins and ghouls and fabulous shapes of monsters. 2 This pass, which
in no sense differs from scores of others in Persia, and is a hundred
fold less rugged and repellent than many, has impressed the
European traveller in a variety of ways; for, whilst the romantic
Ker Porter saw in it only £ a dun and drowthy vale,’ Sir J. Malcolm,
for once forsaken by sound sense, described it as containing £ the
most frightful precipices and ravines he had ever seen.’ On
quitting the mountainous tract, the road debouched upon the
Hauz-i-Sultan, or Reservoir of the King, where was a
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
containing a tank that was fed by several Icanats on the northern
outskirts of the Icavir. This Icavir, or salt desert, was commonly
regarded as the most westerly bay or extension of the Dasht-i-
Kavir, or Great Salt Desert of northern Persia, and must have ap
proached, further to the east, if it did not actually join, the Daria-i-
Nemek, or Sea of Salt, which has been for the first time brought
to light in the present year. 3 4 Popular legend avers that the sea,
which is supposed to have covered the whole expanse, dried up on
the birth of the Prophet; but attributes the still surviving swamps to
the sweat that poured from the brow of Shamr, the murderer of the
saintly Husein, who fled to this wilderness in the agony of an in
expiable remorse. After traversing the havir, which was over ten
miles in width, the road crossed the Kara Su, or Kara Chai liver
by the Pul-i-Dellak, or Barber’s Bridge, a stone structure either
erected or repaired by some famous barber of the past, commonly
supposed to have officiated in that capacity to Shah Abbas. It
then proceeded to Kum.
The second road, which is followed by the wires of the Indo-
1 Jeremiah ii. 6 has been appositely quoted: ‘A land of deserts and of pits,
a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed throug ,
and where no man dwells.’ .
2 For local legends about it, ride Malcolm’s Sketches, cap. xvi., an . . m
ning, Two Years' Travel, vol. ii. p. 202.
3 Vide cap. xxiii. „ .
4 Sir R. Ker Porter is at his very best in describing this functionary, whoever
he may have been, as ‘the public-spirited barber and honest siater, oo i
Dowlak ’!
b 2
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 [477r] (964/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213846.0x0000a5> [accessed 5 July 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