Ebook: Cornelius Rahmn and his works on the Kalmuck language

Sendai: Tōhoku University, Center for Northeast Asian Studies. 東北アジア研究、第13号。Northeast Asian Studies Vol 13.Although there is no academic tradition for Mongolian language studies in Sweden, some individuals have from time to time made noteworthy contributions to this field. Best known among these is no doubt Philip Johan Stralenberg (1677-1747), whose famous description of Northern and Eastern Eurasia from 1730 contains a rather extensive Kalmuck wordlist (see also Krueger 1975a). Stralenberg had been an officer in the army of the Swedish king Charles XII, who was defeated by Peter I of Russia at Poltava in 1709. Like many other Swedish officers he was captured and sent to Tobolsk in Siberia, where he collected materials about Siberian geography and languages. He was allowed to return to Sweden in 1722, and he published his book in Stockholm in 1730. He spent his last years at his brother’s castle Fröllinge in the small southern Swedish village Geting (incidentally the same village where I grew up in the 1940s and 50s without knowing anything about Stralenberg). Another Swedish prisoner of war who made a notable contribution to Kalmuck studies was Johan Gustaf Renat (1682-1744), who was captured first by the Russians at Poltava and later by the Dzungars, and spent 17 years in Dzungaria. When he could return to Sweden in 1734, he brought with him two maps, the first detailed maps of the Oirad area in Central Asia, now held by Uppsala University Library (see Poppe 1955).