Qulpa

Qulpa (died 1360) was Khan of the Golden Horde from August 1359 to February 1360.

==Reign== He came to the throne four days after the murder of his predecessor Berdi Beg. It has been supposed that Qulpa might have begun his reign as a rival khan at Azov, but that cannot be verified and seems unlikely. His short reign is not recorded in most of the Persian and Arabic narratives treating the khans of the Golden Horde, but it is briefly treated in the Russian chronicles, which report that Qulpa reigned for 6 months and 5 days, did a lot of evil, and in the end was killed, together with his sons Mihail and Ivan. The names of Qulpa's sons and the absence of a traditional Muslim name on his coins suggest that he might have been Christian, but that is not certain. The publication of a contemporary Venetian notary act by Benedetto Bianco confirms Qulpa's favor towards Christians and that at least his eldest, 12-year-old son was a Christian; it also dates the murders of Qulpa, his two sons, and two emirs, and the accession of the next khan, Nawruz Beg, to 28 February 1360. Qulpa's control over the Golden Horde may have been challenged from the start, by Berdi Beg's son-in-law Mamai in the west, and by the reassertion of autonomy in the former subordinate Ulus of Orda in the east, under Qara Noqai, a descendant of Jochi's son Toqai Temür.