The Oriental Features of Lord CurzonView to Iran

Surveying the historical texts reveal that Europeans have been increasingly interested in bolstering their knowledge about the eastern countries such as Iran, because of the Modern Period and political, military, and economical changes in Europe. European’s states have employed various methods when they were studying the East. At that time, travel writing was the primary source of knowledge showing the eastern countries to the European states such as Britain. This is a possible reason why travel writings about the eastern countries were widely published. One of the salient travel writings is the Persia and the Persian Question by Lord Curzon. The author is a prominent figure firstly because of his important position in Great Britain, which was, sometimes, as high as the Foreign Minister, and secondly, because of his efforts to obtain colonial concessions from Iran, including the 1907 and 1919 treaties. This research sheds light on the basic questions about the what the various factors of George Curzon's view about Iran are based on, as well as, considers Edward Said's theory of Orientalism. The results indicate that Lord Curzon's views about Iran are hegemonic which are characterized by moralization based on essentialist concepts and generalization. It should be mentioned that the present research has been conducted by using descriptive analysis method of the text commentary type.