Sebeos

Sebeos () was the author of a 7th-century Armenian history. Though his name is not known, he was likely a member of the clergy. It is the primary source for Armenian history in the 6th and 7th centuries. It is valued as the earliest surviving major account of the rise of Islam and the early Muslim conquests and as one of the very few non-Islamic sources on the Muslim conquests.

==Authorship== The history attributed to Sebeos has survived in a manuscript written in Bitlis in 1672 (now held at the Matenadaran in Armenia), in which it is included as an anonymous, untitled history in a collection of Armenian sources. The name Sebeos, which is a shortened form of the name Eusebius, appears as the name of one of the Armenian bishops who signed the resolution of the Fourth Council of Dvin in 645: "Bishop Sebeos of the Bagratunis". Additionally, a historian named Sebeos (called a bishop by Samuel Anetsi), to whom is attributed a History of Heraclius, which has been assumed to be the same as the anonymous history of the 1672 manuscript, is included in some lists of Armenian historians. However, this is not universally accepted. Since the 19th century, many scholars have identified Bishop Sebeos of the Bagratunis with the historian Sebeos and attributed the anonymous history of the 1672 manuscript to the same person. However, Robert W. Thomson writes that these are only assumptions and writes, "[t]he author and original title of this work published as the History of Sebeos remain unknown." The author of the history never refers to the 645 Fourth Council of Dvin. The history attributed to Sebeos was known to and quoted by later Armenian historians. However, none of those who mentioned it ever acknowledged their source as the history of Sebeos.