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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [706r] (1428/1814)
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 KAPOJN RIVER
363
surface. In industrious hands this island might become the
granary of south-west Persia, producing not only wheat and
barley, but cotton, rice, maize, tobacco, sesame, indigo, and opium
in almost unlimited amount. Its fertility was well known to the
ancients, and better utilised by them ; and the omniscient Strabo
described the soil as giving a return exceeding one hundred and
even two hundredfold.
In the far east the sun topped the Bakhtiari mountains at
7.10 A.M., and threw a radiant gleam upon their snowy
Sunrise caps. A dense canopy of leaden clouds, hanging just
above, with
Ragged rims of thunder brooding low
And shadow streaks of rain,
caused an atmospheric phenomenon which I imagine to be rare,
and which I have nowhere previously seen. It appeared to have
the effect, instead of absorbing the suns rays as the disc arose, of
resisting and throwing them across the heavens, so much so that
in the opposite quarter of the horizon on the west was produced a
very perfect reflection of the rising orb, in the shape of a circulai
nimbus of prismatic light. Too soon the vision faded and disap
peared. At the Arab encampment, composed of parallel rows of
reed huts, I struck the left bank of the Ab-i-Shuteit, here a flue
river flowing between steep jungle-clothed banks with a width of
about 250 yards. The track followed it for three or four miles,
and then, at a point where a rocky bluff comes down to the light
bank of the river, and there is a second Arab village on the left,
struck across to the north-east in the direction of Shushtei. I did
not again see the Shuteit or Karun till above Valerian s bi idge
outside the city.
As I neared Shushter, the ground showed abundant traces if
not of present, at least of bygone cultivation. Dykes, water-
Outskirts C0l;ir ses, and the banks of dried canals inteisected the
of Shush- country in every direction ; while the recent xains had
converted the track into a sea of mud. A village with
palm-trees was passed on the left; a larger and thicker gieen
fringe on the horizon gave suggestions of a better tilled and moie
populous site; a pyramidal spire crowning a ruined mosque
appeared upon a hill-top ; whitewashed cupolas shone amid the
trees; and presently the panorama of a large town in a state of
obvious decay unrolled itself upon the summit of a considerable
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 [706r] (1428/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x00001d> [accessed 18 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