Hayton of Corycus (1235-1314, esp. 1299-1305)

by Caroline Stone (See Chinese translation)

Hayton of Corycus (Hethum of Korikos and other variant spellings) was the nephew of King Hethum I of Cilician Armenia and of his brother Smbat (Sempad), both of whom travelled to the Ordos of the Mongol Khans to offer submission in exchange for protection against the Muslim Mamluk and Seljuk aggressors.

In 1299, Hayton made a pilgrimage to Paris in order to fulfil a vow, and in 1305 joined the Order of Premonstratensians (priests) at Bellapais Abbey in Cyprus. At Poitiers, in 1307, at the request of Pope Clement V, he dictated La Flor des Estoires d'Orient in French to a certain Nicholas Faulcon, who was also charged with translating the work into Latin -- Flos historiarum terre Orientis.

Although Hayton himself never travelled to the East, as far as is known, his work was one of the major sources of information on the Mongols and the Muslim invasion of Western Asia during the Middle Ages and was widely circulated. He seems to have used a number of sources besides the verbal reports of his two uncles and the written version of King Hethum’s journey in Kirakos Ganjakets'i's, History of the Armenians, probably including accounts by John of Plano Carpini and other Western travellers, which would have been available to him. He also mentions the Estoires des Tartars, apparently no longer extant.

The Flower of Histories is divided into four parts of unequal length:

- A general outline of the history and geography of Asia
- The Muslim conquests
- The Mongols and their conquests (the most substantial section)
- A discussion of the possibility of joint action with the Mongols against the Muslims, especially with regard to a new Crusade to liberate the Holy Land.

Shortly after dictating his book, apparently in the same year, 1307, Hayton abandoned the religious life and returned to Cilician Armenia to take up various important military positions. The reasons for this, his later life and his date of death are essentially unknown, although there have been a number of theories.