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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [733r] (1482/1814)
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
PERSIAN GULF
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
40S
gretted by many that the British did not retain possession of the
place after their capture of it in 1857.’ The harbour might then
have been improved, or rather created; stone quays would have
replaced the present mouldering sea-wall; the routes into the inte-
i ioi would have been definitely taken in hand; and in immediate
contact with enterprise and initiative, backed by wealth, southern
Persia might have found an earlier salvation.
The mountain-wall, down which I climbed by the precipitous
rock-ladders from Shiraz, and which fills the entire background
Coast at Bushire at a distance of thirty miles from the coast,
landscape on the nort h-east horizon to a lofty spike, 6,500
feet high (Kuh Khormuj, called in the charts Halilah Point),
is continued along the coast almost without interruption from the
Hindian Kiver to Gwetter. From the ship’s deck this unbroken ' '
rampart never leaves the eye. In places it approaches to the
shore; but far more commonly it is withdrawn to a distance, vary- ^
ing from fifteen to thirty miles inland, admitting between its base
and the sea a level expanse, the parts of which nearest the coast
are often under water, and are little better than sticky mud flats
when dry; while beyond are plains, sparsely cultivated, and dotted
at rare intervals with small villages consisting of mud-huts dropped
amid clusters of palms. These torrid plains, called by the natives
Garmsir (hot region), extend to the foot of the hills, where a lower
sandstone ridge frequently intervenes before the main range, or
mountains proper, known as Sardsir (cold region), are reached.
Upon these no speck of green, no token of life is visible. Pink
they glow in the early morning under the rising sun; grey they
glisten under the full noontide blaze, when their veteran scars can
be traced or counted in the field-glass; lilac they linger longer on
the landscape as the fugitive afternoon throws them into deepening
shade ; umber they merge and are swallowed up in the umber
night. The last impression of the traveller, as he leaves Persia is
that wherewith he entered it. It is a land of mountains, and ’oh
for a sight of green grass !
Thirty miles north-west of Bushire, and also under the juris
diction of the Saad-el-Mulk, is the small island of Kharak, four and
General John Jacob, a man possessed of remarkable political insig-ht wh*
strongly of opinion, after the campaign, that England should retain Arabistan
ushire, and Kharak Island (vide his Views and Opinions, edited by Captain Lewis
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 [733r] (1482/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213849.0x000053> [accessed 6 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