Jean Richard
Institut de France, Academie des Inscriptions
The Relatio De Davide As A Source For Mongol History
35th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, 1992
The “Historia gestorum Davidis regis Indorum”, known as “Relatio de Davide” and existing in several versions, was inserted in a letter of Jacques de Vitry, bishop of Acre, on April 18, 1221. This work, likely written by Oriental Christians, relates the major events which had perturbated Central Asia and the Middle East, from the overthrow of the Qara-khitai Gur-khan by the Naïman princeling Küčlüg (1211) to the destruction of some Georgian castles and of Qazwin by the Mongols (winter 1220–1221). It mistakes Küčlüg (dead 1218), who is here called “King David”, for Gengis-khan himself, and attributes to the former the conquests of the latter. But these conquests are really those which the Mongol qaghan performed, and the text give a summary description of the campaigns and of the countries they affected.