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Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [51r] (103/879)
The record is made up of 1 file (436 folios). It was created in 14 Oct 1891-Sep 1911. It was written in English, French 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.
LAKE URMI AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.
9
bows, which plays an important part in the navigation. The ships can
only sail before the wind, and consequently, when the wind shifts into
an unfavourable quarter, which happens once or twice every day, the
anchor is dropped until the wind becomes favourable once more.
We had a crew of seven Mussulmans, who told me that they and all
those “ who understand the art of walking upon the waters ” come from
the same village—Giamitshi, on the shores of the lake not far north of
Ardishai. The sole right of navigation is vested in the Admiral of the
Fleet, the Shahzada, governor of Maragha. The ship placed at my
disposal by the agent, by command of the Amir Nizam, was called the
Nahangk (= leopard). It was completely decked over, and smelt of
sheep.
Islands.—In the southern half of the lake is a small group of rocky
islands of ill-defined geographical position, but undoubtedly situated
nearer the eastern than the western shore of the lake, and not vice versa
(Russian map). Some eight or nine of the islands in this archipelago
have received names, but there are many small islets and upstanding
rocks which have not been mapped, and are a source of anxiety to the
navigator. From a distance they present a rounded appearance, like the
knolls on our chalk downs, but from a near point of view their pre
cipitous cliffs and rugged hillsides testify to the erosive powers of the
heavy salt waves in stormy weather. Here and there are beaches of
true marine shells, coral fragments, and echinoderms, such as could only
have lived in a real sea of marine salinity and in connection with the
ocean. These marine shells, now for a second time rolled by salt waves,
tell the tale of a Miocene sea of normal salinity, which has been stated
to have been a northerly continuation of the
Persian gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
from the
Indian ocean, but was almost certainly a part of the vast Miocene
Mediterranean. This Miocene sea seems to have had a climate like that
of the present Red sea, and, like it, was a coral sea. Upon its floor were
laid down the chalk and limestone formations of the Urmi archipelago,
as well as those of the calcareous mountains on the south of the lake,
and which, so far as their fossils go, are very like the Miocene of the
Vienna basin.
There is a tradition that the islands were connected with the main
land some eighty years ago by dry land, and that they were then
inhabited. The captain of one of the ships assured me that there was
a submerged ridge of land extending in a south-westerly direction from
the islands, but I had not time to make any
soundings
Measurements of the depth of a body of water.
myself in verifica
tion of his statement. It is certain, however, that Koyun Daghi was
formerly inhabited, because ruins and foundations of several houses may
be traced near the spring. At the present time the islands are unin
habited, but they are often visited by the sailors, who turn out goats
and sheep to pasture during certain months in the year, and who dig up
for fuel the roots of trees cut down by their predecessors. At a distance
A 2
About this item
- Content
The file contains miscellaneous papers, mostly printed publications, newspaper cuttings and photographs, relating to Persia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
It includes a few items of correspondence, including letters to George Nathaniel Curzon relating to the Trans-Persian Railway, and Russian influence in Persia, and handwritten notes by Curzon on topics including arms traffic in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and the Trans-Persian Railway.
The file also includes copies of printed publications relating to Persia, including: three pamphlets on Lake Urmi [Urmia] in North West Persia, by Robert Theodore Günther (two of which include duplicate copies of a map of the Lake Urmi Basin, Mss Eur F111/356, f 132); a paper entitled ‘Paper to be read before the Indian Section of the Society of Arts, Thursday, May 8th. 1902. The Past and Present Connection of England with the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . By Thomas Jewell Bennett.’; and an article from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Volume 5, Number 8, August 1909) entitled ‘Some Persian Folk-lore Stories concerning the Ruins of Persepolis.’ by Captain Charles Monk Gibbon, Royal Irish Fusiliers.
It includes in addition: two issues of a French pamphlet entitled Bulletin de l’Union des Associations des Anciens Élèves des Écoles Supérieures de Commerce (Reconnues par l’État) [ Bulletin of the Union of Associations of Former Students of the Higher Schools of Commerce (Recognized by the State) ], dated 20 January and 5 February 1904, which include articles by M E Peschier on the Baghdad Railway; and a German bookseller’s catalogue entitled Indica et Iranica Teilweise aus der Bibliothek von Viggo Fausböll Professor der indischen Sprachen an der Universität Kopenhagen I. Literaturen und Sprachen Indiens und Persiens [ Indica et Iranica Partially from the Library of Viggo Fausboll Professor of Indian Languages at the University of Copenhagen. Literatures and Languages of India and Persia ].
Folios to 250 to 370 of the file mostly consist of cuttings relating to Persia and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. from various newspapers and other publications, including: The Times , The Morning Post , The Spectator , The Civil & Military Gazette , The Times of India , and The Standard . The cuttings concern topics including: British interests in Persia; the Russian influence in Persia, including the Persian Government signing a concession to a Russian company for the construction of a cart-road between Kazvin, Resht and Enzeli, and Anglo-Russian rivalry in trade with Persia; the cholera epidemic in Persia; and the events of the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11.
Folios 386 to 433 of the file consist of black and white photographs, including:
- Three photographs in an envelope entitled ‘Photos of Koweit [Kuwait]’, of Mabarak-bin-Subah [Shaikh Mubārak bin Ṣabāḥ Āl Ṣabāḥ], Shaikh of Kuwait, and his youngest son Naser (f 387), the foreshore of Koweit (f 388), and the residence of the Shaikh of Koweit (f 389)
- Two photographs in an envelope labelled ‘Photos by Parkin (assistant at Brit[ish] Resid[ency] Bushire / of Koweit Muscat. Bushire. Sent to me by Col[onel] Meade. April 1899.’ of Seyed Faisal bin Turki [Sayyid Fayṣal bin Turkī Āl Bū Sa‘īd], Sultan of Muscat (f 392), and Seyed Mohamed bin Turki, half-brother of the Sultan of Muscat (f 391)
- A set of photographs of the following: the South entrance of the Governor’s house, Bushire (f 395); the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. and British Consulate, Muskat [Muscat] (f 396); the watch tower on Samana (f 397); Major and Mrs Leigh in Camp in Samana (f 398); Major and Mrs Leigh and Lieutenant Creagh [possibly George Washington Brazier-Creagh] at Mastar [Māster, Persia] (f 399); entrance of Muskat Harbour (f 400); town of Muskat from the harbour (f 401); Fort Jelali, Muskat (f 402); Fort Mahrani [Fort Al-Mirani], Muscat (f 403); and the British Vice Consulate at Mohamerah [Khorramshahr] (f 404)
- Printed images of the following: the British Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Manamah, Bahrain (f 407); Shaikh Khaz’ al of Muhammareh [Shaikh Khaz‘al bin Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī] (f 408); the view at Haz’-adh-Dhabi, Trucial Oman A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. (f 409); salt rocks on Qishm Island near Namakdan (f 410); the Hindiyan River near Zaidan (f 411); a parade of British and Persian troops at Rishehr, 1905 (f 412); two views of Muhammerah Town (f 413); a creek near Basrah [Basra] from the Shatt-al-’Arab (f 414); a crowd at Ras-al-Khaimah (f 415); the Foreshore, Kuwait (f 416); the Hanaini well, Bahrain Island (f 417); ancient tumuli, Bahrain Island (f 418); Kumzar (f 419); Lingeh (f 420); the Tis Valley in Persian Makran (f 421); the West end of Masqat Town [Muscat Town] with the Sultan’s Palace and Fort Mirani (f 422); and the Eastern end of Masqat Town, with the British Consulate on the left, and the Sultan’s palace on the right (f 423).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (436 folios)
- Arrangement
The folios from folio 4 to folio 251 are arranged in rough chronological order. The newspaper cuttings are mostly between folios 249 and 359, and the photographs are at the rear of the file (folios 386 to 433).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 436; 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.
- Written in
- English, French and German in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/356
- Title
- Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf
- Pages
- 46r:81r, 82r:133v
- Author
- Gunther, Robert William Theodore
- Copyright
- ©Royal Geographical Society
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence