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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎627v] (1271/1814)

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. .

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244 PERSIA
west of the former site, 1 and about thirty years ago was raised to a
pitch of great prosperity under the rule of the Vekil-el-Mulk,
who, though a hard and avaricious governor, recovered for the
place somewhat of its ancient prestige.
The remains of old Kerman occupy a space about three miles
in length outside the walls of the modern town, and are commanded
bv a bio' ruined fort, attributed to Ardeshir, and called
Modern ^ ^ , . ..
city the Kaleh-i-Dokhter, or Maiden s h ort, upon a steep lime
stone ridge to the east. The modern city is about three-quarters
of a square mile in extent, and is surrounded by battlemented
mud walls, after the usual Persian fashion, pierced by six gates,
with a broad half-choked ditch. Like Yezd, it contains a fort and
a citadel in the fort, where the Governor resides. Here also high
dark jua&utains at a slight distance overhang the city, while the
snow-streaked peaks of loftier ranges to the north-west are always
in the landscape. The public buildings, naturally enough, are
lacking in interest, the principal being the Musjid-i-Jama, founded
a.d. 1349, the two-storeyed madresseh of Ibrahim Khan, and the
Kuba-i-Sebz, or Green Cupola, a cylindrical dome-covered structure
raised in a.d. 1155, containing a mutilated marble tomb in the
centre, and the remains of a blue tile wainscoting. The population
is said to be about 40,000. 2 In 1810 Pottinger found no Jews,
Armenians, or Hindus ; but there are now representatives of all
three nationalities, the Hindus, some forty in number, and half-
Persianised in dress and appearance, being traders from Shikarpur
and Sind. They live in a caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). apart, and enthusiastically
welcome any English traveller, whose notice invests them with a
superior social distinction. There is also a considerable Parsi
population, inhabiting a separate quarter, and possessing a funeral
tower in the neighbouring hills. Stack quotes the prophecy of a
local saint, who predicted a century ago that Isfahan will he
destroyed by water, Yezd by sand, and Kerman by horsehoofs;
1 In the present century it has been visited and described by (Sir) H. Pottinger
(1810), Travels in Beloochistan, cap. x.; N. de Khanikoff (1859), Memoire, pp. 186-
198 (with a map); Sir F. Goldsmid (1866), Telegraph and Travel, pp. 582-590;
Colonel Euan-Smith (1871), Eastern Persia, vol. i. pp. 183-191; (Sir) 0. St. John
(1872), Eastern Persia, vol. i. pp. 92-102; E. Floyer (1876), Unexplored Baluchistan,
cap. xiii.; E. Stack (1881), Six Months in Persia, vol. i. p. 202.
2 In 1878 a careful census was made by the then governor, which showed
39,718 Mohammedans, 1,341 Parsis, 85 Jews, and 26 Hindus, or a total of 41,170
persons.

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
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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎627v] (1271/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x000048> [accessed 17 June 2026]

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