Hayton of Corycos and His Treatise “Flower of the Histories of the Oriental Land” (History of the Tatars)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the person of Hayton (Hetum) of Corycos, a historian from Cylician Armenia from the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th centuries and his main work, known as “Flower of the Histories of the Oriental Land” or „History of the Tatars“. Hayton was a member of a prominent aristocratic family, branch of the royal dynasty of the Hetumids, a significant political leader and active promoter of the Union between the Roman Catholic and the Armenian Church. His treatise was addressed to the Avignon Papacy and the French King and aimed to convince them to offer generous support to his native Cylician Armenia, and to popularize the idea of an anti-Egyptian coalition among the West, Armenia and the Tatar-Mongol Ilkhanide rulers of Iran. The article presents also the main ideas of the treatise. It is followed by a full translation from Latin into Bulgarian of the Latin version of the treatise, which followed immediately the Old French original, which has been consulted. The translation is based on the edition of Charles Kohler from 1906.