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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [498v] (1007/1814)
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.
34
PERSIA
by the brush of the painter, who had left in its place a pale pink
wash. Had I caught the pagan, I would gladly have suffocated
him in a barrel of his own paint.
Immediately behind the verandah is the talar , or throne-room ;
and from this, but on a rather higher level, opens a deeply recessed
Throne- compartment or dais, or Shahnishin, whereon stood the
room royal throne. The decorations of this chamber, when I
saw it, were still intact j and the prismatic flash of the miiror panels
and facets on the walls, the painting in gold, blue, red and green
on the coffered ceiling, and the honeycomb vaulting of the recess,
produced a sumptuous effect. Out of the throne-room small com
partments open on either side, that were intended for the king s
ministers.
Finally, behind the throne-room, and communicating with it
by three doors, is a great hall, extending the entire length of the
Picture building (Lumsden gives its dimensions as seventy-five
gallery f eet forty-five feet), crowned by three low cupolas,
and adorned over almost the entire surface of its walls by six
immense oil-paintings, three on either side. Fietio della \alle,
speaking of the paintings in the palace at Isfahan in the reign of
Shah Abbas, made the remark that they were so badly drawn that
he was very apprehensive of losing the European artist whom he
had brought out to take private pictures for himself, if the king
should become aware of his merit. Notwithstanding this criticism,
which is so far just that the ignorance of perspective, the ill pro
portion, and the angular stiffness apparent in all Persian portraiture
might well have shocked a seventeenth-century European, whose
vision had been trained in the school of the Italian Renaissance, these
pictures of the Chehel Situn are both admirable as works of art
and invaluable as historical documents. They transport us straight
to the court of the lordly Abbas and his predecessors or successors
on the throne. We see the king engaged in combat, or at some
royal festivity, enjoying the pleasures of the bowl. The big
moustaches and smooth chins, and abundant turbans, represent a
fashion of coiffure that has long expired. The arms and accoutre
ments of the warriors, the instruments of the musicians, the very
gestures of the dancing-girls, open to us the locked doors of the
past; and we seem to share in the feasts and fights, in the pomp
and dalliance of the Sefavi kings. Whether these pictures are the
originals that were painted by order of those sovereigns, or whether
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 [498v] (1007/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000008> [accessed 13 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