March 14, 2024Open Access

The Western Mongol World in the Early Eighteenth Century: Kalmyks and Oirats in Vasilis Vatatzēs’s Periēgētikon and His 1732 Map of Central Asia

Key Points

This map shows detailed insights into the Kalmyks and Oirats' territories in eighteenth-century Central Asia, enhancing regional understanding.
The reconstruction of Vatatzēs’s itineraries illustrates caravan routes that connected southern Siberia with Central Asia's Khanates.
Assessment focuses on Vasilis Vatatzēs’s experiences as a Greek-Ottoman merchant traveling through Central Asia in the early 1700s, contributing to historical geography studies now revealed in the article's findings. Highlights the importance of primary historical sources like Periēgētikon for contemporary understanding of Mongolic nations.

Abstract

Abstract The article revolves around the information on the Kalmyks and Oirats contained in Vasilis Vatatzēs’s Periēgētikon (Voyages). Vatatzēs, a Greek-Ottoman merchant who travelled in Central Asia in the first half of the eighteenth century, supplemented his text with a map (engraved and published in 1732 in London) and produced a biography of Shah Nader of Persia, the founder of the short-lived Afsharid dynasty. Vatatzēs travelled along the caravan routes connecting the cities of southern Siberia with the Khanates of Central Asia, as demonstrated by a reconstruction of his itineraries, reaching as far as Bukhara. Focusing on the nations of Central Asia, Vatatzēs’s accounts and map provide much information regarding western Mongolic nations, starting with the Kalmyks in the Volga region and reaching as far as the Oirats, to the NW of China.

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