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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [619v] (1255/1814)
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.
PERSIA
breakfast table. Here I left the telegraph poles, which take a
more southerly line to Ahmedi, and steered a westerly course for
Shif. A good many sand-grouse were visible on the way, and,
after the fashion of game in general, were as annoyingly tame to
the unarmed voyager on horseback as they are wild to the sports
man on foot with a gun. Though the temperature was cool and
pleasant, a mirage trembled above the heated soil, and gave frequent
glimpses of a sea that ever receded, and of islets that xesolved
themselves into tiny heaps of sand. The distorting powers of the
illusion (called sirab by the Persians) seemed to be limited to objects
near the surface, but upon that level there was no limit to its
achievements; for what appeared at some distance to be the ruins of
an extensive marble edifice were converted upon approach into the
lank members of an old white horse browsing upon the scrub. 1 At
length was visible a square building with a tower, that turned out
to be the solitary glory, nay, the sole structure of Shif. It is a
dilapidated
caravanserai
A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers).
, standing within a few yards of a slimy
beach, where a sluggish water laps the sand. Colonel Ross’s
launch was lying a quarter of a mile off; and a boat was waiting
to transfer me to its welcome variety of locomotion. How glad I
was to take off the saddle and saddlebags and holsters, to say good
bye to my rickety yabu, and to feel that I had without any
accident passed through Persia from sea to sea. Shif faces a
shallow bay, on the opposite side of which is the small fishing
village of Sheikh Saad. Rounding this point, we came out into
the open bay, and steered a line straight across for Bushire, whose
wind-towers and occasional palms swelled into larger prominence
above the waves. Steamers tossing in the offing, quite three miles
away, revealed the nature of the anchorage at the first port in
Persia. Skirting the eastern face of the town, which, though
squalid enough to a new comer, deserves a high rank amongst
Persian maritime cities, the launch deposited me at the Governor’s
Bunder. The Union Jack streaming from the top of a gigantic mast
—by far the loftiest object in Bushire—proclaimed the site of the
British
Residency
An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India.
; and in ten minutes’ time I was the guest and
inmate of an English home.
Bushire (lit. Abu Shehr) 2 is a town without a history, or at
1 For an excellent description of the Asiatic mirage, as encountered by Alex
ander in his march through Sogdiana, vide Quint. Curt. lib. vii. c. 5.
2 The common derivation, i.e. Father of Cities, cannot be correct, because
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 [619v] (1255/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000038> [accessed 9 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