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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [670r] (1356/1814)
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.
* THE SOUTH-WESTERN PROVINCES 315
Jehan-Bin (World’s View), just under 13,000 feet in height.
From this great centre, which forms at the same time a water
■parting for the two most famous rivers of Persia, and a boundary
between separate ethnological areas, spring the Karun on the
south and the Zendeh Hud on the east. The former drains towards
the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
; the latter has already been encountered under
the arches of the terraced bridges of Isfahan. In the peak called
^ Haft Tanan (Seven Corpses, said to be those of the first and last
party that ever reached the summit), are the real head-waters of
the Karun. Fourteen miles lower down is the remarkable spring
in the Zardeh Kuh, 1 which was visited by Stack 2 and by Mrs.
Bishop, and which local error has christened Ser-chashmeh-i-
Kurang, i.e. Head-springs of the Karun. From a hole in the bare
cliff wall, communicating with a deep well at the other end of a
natural cleft in the rock, the water gushes out with magnificent
strength, and falls with a roar into the pool forty feet below.
Hence the river rushes to its main bed, five miles distant; and
from here to Shushter, a distance of seventy-five miles as the crow
flies, drives a sinuous farrow for 250 miles through some of the
& noblest mountain scenery in the world, falling in the same interval
9,000 feet. Its normal width, even in its upper reaches, is from
50 to 100 yards, but sometimes it is compressed between sombre
gorges, whose perpendicular walls, from 1,000 to 3,000 feet in sheer
height, throw into perpetual shade the sea-green ribband below •
whilst in one place, at the bridge of Ali Kuh, its volume is con
tracted within a rift only nine feet across. For the first 100 miles
of its course it runs due south-east. Then, with a sharp bend, it
tarns south-west, and cuts a fifty miles channel through transverse
ranges; then for nearly 100 miles more it flows north-west, in a
direction inverse but exactly parallel to its original course; finally,
it turns south, enters the plain of Akili by a gorge commanded by
the ruins of two Sassanian castles, and having burst by means of
another defile through the Kuh-i-Fedelek, or sandstone ridge above
Shushter, debouches upon the plains of Arabistan. During this
erratic progress it receives several tributaries. Of these, the most
important and comparable in volume with itself is the Ab-i-Bazuft
or Budbar, which flows in from the north-west in a bed running
1 This signifies Yellow Mountain, and is quite a modem name. The deriva
tion, Sard Kuh—i.e. Cold Mountain—has been suggested, and is, perhaps, more
probable. 2 Six Months in Persia, vol. ii. pp. 91-2.
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 [670r] (1356/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213848.0x00009d> [accessed 26 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