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Publications, Newspaper Cuttings, Photographs and Correspondence about Persia and the Persian Gulf [47v] (96/879)
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.
2
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GEOGRAPHY OF
and hospitality at Urmi and at Tabriz. For my personal safety and
for the loan of one of the ships on the lake, I am greatly indebted to
the Amir Nizam.
The name Urmi, or Urmia, appears under a variety of synonyms in
maps and literature. Urmi is the form adopted by the Archbishop’s
Mission and by Kiepert, and is the local name for the town. The
variations Urumia, Urumea, Urumiyeh, Ooroomieyah, Urumiyah have
their origin in foreign mispronunciations or in false etymological
derivations, and never seem to have been indigenous. In Persia, except
from the lips of certain members of the American Mission, I never
heard any other pronunciation than Urmi. The lake is known as the
Urmi-gjdlu on the western side, but Shah-gjolii in Tabriz (Kiepert),
and appears to be the Zravra of Strabo.
Hydrography.—The Urmi lake-basin is situated upon a plateau of
over 4000 feet above sea-level, which is the water-parting between the
rivers flowing into the Caspian sea and those flowing into the Persian
gulf, or between the Arctic * and the Indian oceans. On this plateau
is a depression which Sir Oliver St. John estimated as extending over
an area of 20,000 square miles. I have redetermined it at 19,370 square
miles, of which 1795 square miles are at present occupied by the Lake
of Urmi and its islands.
The level of the lake is about 4100 feet (4025, Schindler) above
sea-level; about 4184 feet, or 84 feet more, above the level of the
Caspian; and about 1114 feet lower than Lake Van (5214 feet). Its
depth is insignificant as compared with its area, and probably does not
exceed 50 feet. Over the water-partings the lowest passes vary from
about 5700 feet to 9000 feet on the west, while several mountains rise
to a height of over 10,000 feet (Savalan, 15,792 ; Sahend, 11,630). The
Kurdish mountains to the west retain their winter’s snow until after
midsummer.
One of the most interesting of the phenomena exhibited by Lake
Urmi is the hitherto unaccountable rise and fall of the level of its
waters. Like so many desert lakes which have no overflow, and unlike
lakes in temperate zones, the size of Lake Urmi is not only continually
changing with the season of the year, but is also subject to fluctuations
occurring in longer and less regular cycles, to the great annoyance of
the dwellers on its littoral. An expedition of Italian investigators
visited the lake during the winter of 1897,t and doubtless their report,
when published, will show how insufficient the data of the local
meteorology are for the elucidation of the problem.
* The Caspian sea is regarded as belonging to the Arctic water system. The
fauna of the Caspian sea affords indications, zoologically very convincing, of a not very
remote connection of its waters with those of the Arctic ocean.
t Bolletino della Societa Geographica Italiana, X. pp. 459, 460. 1897.
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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Copyright: How to use this content
- 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