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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [572r] (1158/1814)
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.
PEKSEPOLIS, AND OTHER RUINS 153
are still lying there, either ready for removal, or not yet wholly sepa
rated from the mother-rock. Chipped fragments may be encountered
all along the slope. The proximity of this great natural source of
supply must have been one of the main reasons for the selection of
the site of Persepolis, and accounts for the astonishing wealth of
sculpture. Scarcely any transport was needed, and the workman
could both hew and elaborate his raw material on the spot.
For about 150 years the platform has been called by the Persians
Takht i Jamshid, or Throne of Jamshid. Its earlier name, which can
Panorama trace< ^ as ^ ar back as the fourteenth century, and also still
survives, was Chehel Minar, i.e. Forty Minarets or Spires, an
allusion to the big columns of the Hall of Xerxes, which originally
numbered many more, but have steadily dwindled for centuries. Forty,
as has been before remarked, is a round number in Persia ; and it is
accordingly fanciful to ascribe the origin of the title to a period when
the columns may have amounted to exactly that total. Other and
cognate Persian titles sometimes applied, have been Chehel and Hazar
(Thousand) Situn. Herbert, in 1627, said that the platform reminded
him of Windsor Castle from Eton. I confess that I cannot imagine
any two objects more dissimilar : nor do I know of any site or struc
ture m the world, with the single exception of the platform at Baalbec,
in Syria, with which Persepolis can at all fairly be compared. The
analogy of acropoleis, or rock-citadels, is not a fair one, inasmuch as
they were commonly situated, at Athens and Pergamos, just as now at
Salzburg and Konigstein, on the summit of natural elevations ; while
the platform of Persepolis is artificially built up from the plain,
whereon, owing to the stretch of surrounding flat, and the background
of the Kuh-i-Rahmet, it can never have occupied a really commanding
position. Indeed, I incline to think that the spectacular grandeur of
Persepolis, no less than its present panoramic importance, have been
uniformly exaggerated by travellers. From a distance, as we approach
it, across the wide plain of Mervdasht, it appears for long to be quite
insignificant : and must, even when covered with its intact palaces and
halls, have always been dwarfed by its surroundings. It is only as
we ride up to the great front-wall, and still more as we wander
among its megalithic ruins, that the full impression of its grandeur
forces itself upon the mind. Few visitors, in all probability, are not
disappointed with the first coup d’ceil. But every hour passed in
scrutiny is a degree of admiration gained ; until reconstructing in
fancy, from the dismembered skeleton before us, the original Persepolis,
glittering and pompous, as it emerged from the hands of Darius and
Xerxes, we can well believe that no more sumptuous framework of
regal magnificence was ever wrought by man.
It is in keeping with the bizarre outline, and with what the Greeks
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 [572r] (1158/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213847.0x00009f> [accessed 12 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