Hayton of Corycus - History of The Tartars

Further information: Armenia under the Ilkhanate

While in France, Hayton wrote a geography of Asia, one of the first of the Middle Ages, the History of the Tartars, also known as La Flor des Estoires d'Orient (Latin: Flos Historiarum Terre Orientis, "The flower of the stories of the Orient"). This work also provides an account of the rise of the Mongol Empire, and of recent events in the Near East, especially relating to the history of the Armenian kingdom and its interaction with the Mongol Ilkhanate, to which it had been tributary since 1236.

The work concludes with a plan for a new crusade, which Hayton proposed should be organised in alliance with the Ilkhan. Hayton's promotion of this Ilkhanid alliance, and also his association with certain parties in the complex Armenian and Cypriot politics of the day, make this work rather tendentious. Thus, Hayton is always keen to ascribe motives for Mongol actions that would endear them to his papal audience, as with his account of the Ilkhan Hülegü's rather destructive invasion of Syria (1259–60):

"The Khan wanted to go to Jerusalem in order to deliver the Holy Land from the Saracens and to remit it to the Christians. The king Hethum I was very happy with this request, and assembled a great score of men on foot and on horse, because, in that time, the Kingdom of Armenia was in such a good state that it easily had 12,000 soldiers on horse and 60,000 soldiers on foot". —"La Flor des Estoires d'Orient", 1307, Hayton of Corycus, Doc. Arm II, p. 170