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Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [874v] (1765/1814)
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.
610
PERSIA
where it joined the marine cable to Kurrachu It was not laid
without much difficulty, and many exasperating impediments,
arising from the obstinacy of local governors, and the depredations
of nomad tribes. These and all other obstacles were, however,
overcome by the unwearying patience of the officers employed, and
so rapidly did the opposition of the Persians subside, that an agree
ment having been concluded in 1864, which allowed for manage
ment of the line by British officers for five months, at the end
of which period they were to leave the country, a second Convention
was signed in November 1865, which provided for a second wire
to be used exclusively for European messages, and extended the
period of residence for the English employes, whose maximum
number was fixed at fifty, to five years. These consecutive modi
fications of the original terms were so many tributes to the tactful
behaviour of the foreigners, and to the impossibility of working the
line without their assistance. As a matter of fact, the Persians
were not less the gainers by this second Convention than the
English; for they secured thereby a free wire for local use, a
maximum royalty of 30,000
tomans
10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value.
, or 12,000^., for the right of
transit enjoyed by the foreigners, and the ultimate reversion of the
entire property. The Shah’s advisers would have been ill-advised
themselves had they thwarted so excellent a bargain.
The next step in chronological order was the opening of a third
Perso-European line in 1866, by the junction of the Russian and
3 Russian Persian wires on the Caucasian frontier. By none of
line these three systems, however, viz. the Anglo-Turkish,
the Anglo-Persian, or the Russo-Persian, were good results
obtained. The staff in no case was competent, transmission was
very slow, there was hopeless confusion of dates arising from the
different calendars recognised, and the mutilation of messages
consequent upon the frequent translations and retranslations by
ignorant clerks into English, French, Dutch, German, Italian, Greek,
Bulgarian, Wallachian, Servian, Russian, Turkish and Armenian,
reduced the patrons of the various lines to a state bordering upon
frenzy.
A way out of the difficulty was suggested by a private firm.
Messrs. Siemens Brothers, in 1867, conceived the idea of a special
double line from London to Teheran, to be constructed by a European
company and to be used exclusively for Indian messages. Their
peculiar and influential relations with the various Governments con-
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 [874v] (1765/1814), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/33, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100157213850.0x0000a6> [accessed 5 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