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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [536r] (1084/1814)
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.
FROM ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ 93
a mile upon a narrow and irregular causeway. Turning a sharp
corner to the left, we presently arrive at the village of Zerghun,
famous for its muleteers, built at the base of a rocky chain. From
a distance of about three miles from Zerghun, to the very outskirts
of Shiraz for this is the last stage that separates us from the
capital of Fars the post-road is one of the stoniest and most dis-
agiet aide in J eisia. Its course lies over a succession of mountain
ridges, in whose valleys and undulations, and over whose peaks
and ciests, it is conducted in a line that in many places resembles
a toirent-bed rather than a made road. The ground is completely
covered with loose stones and boulders, from the size of an orange
to the dimensions of a football; and riding over these, particularly
at any pace, is one of the most painful of human experiences.
Eather more than half-way in a naked mountain-plain, at a spot-
called Bajgah, or Place of the Tolls, from the fact that there was
formerly a station here of ralidars, or toll-gatherers upon the
hafilahs or caravans, is a large, forlorn-looking
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
(men
tioned by Thevenot in 1666) with a tank of water in front. It is
after crossing the subsequent ridge of the Kuh-i-Bamu that we
notice, by the roadside, a tiny channel filled with running water
that accompanies us for some distance on our march. Lest none
should guess it, let me say that this slender rivulet is no less a
stream than the Buknabad, which, rising in the hills twelve miles
away, races gaily down to Shiraz, and was celebrated by the
patriotic Hafiz in terms that would lead one to expect some less
insignificant channel.
It was with no slight relief that, two and three-quarter hours
after leaving Zerghun, and while descending the ultimate ridge of
T en g-i seemingly interminable chain, I caught sight, in the
AH ahu opening of a mountain pass, of a great cluster of solemn
cypresses, and, below, the shimmer of mingled smoke and
mist that floated above the roofs of a large town, lying in the
hollow of a considerable plain. This was Shiraz, which, in the
words of its own singer, Sadi, £ turns aside the heart of the traveller
from his native land ; 5 Shiraz, the home of poets, and rose-bow T ers,
and nightingales, the haunt of jollity, and the Elysian fields of
love, praised in a hundred odes as the fairest gem of Iran. So
overwhelmed with astonishment at the beauty of the panorama is
the wayfarer expected to be, that even the pass takes its name of
Teng-i-Allahu Akbar, the Pass of God is Most Great, from the
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 [536r] (1084/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x000055> [accessed 6 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