A 1685 Letter as One of the Earliest Sources on Ayuka Khan

Abstract

The article considers one of the earliest written sources on Ayuka Khan of the Kalmyks and his relations with the Russian Empire; it was discovered in the Kalmyk Affairs Funds of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. The transcribed and transliterated document as well as its history connected with the 1685 Kalmyk embassy to Moscow — have never been published before. The content of the letter reveals the actual political situation in Southern Russia and the character of Russian-Kalmyk relations during the mentioned period. Ayuka’s letter is a perfect sample of the epistolary genre characteristic of the diplomatic correspondence between the Kalmyk noblemen of those days. Ayuka’s red square seal (tamga) — the origin of which is still unclear — was attached to it. Further discoveries and investigations of letters by Kalmyk Khans and taishas (princes) form quite a promising research trend in Mongolian studies.