In 1959, the Syriac Orthodox patriarch Philoxenus Dolabani claimed without citing his source that the chronicle was the work of the "renowned scribe" Manṣur, abbot of Qarṭmin and son of Marzuq, a priest of Basabrina.
Its information is not passed on verbatim, but is often abbreviated and in some cases modified, as when the Chronicle of 819 labels Ibas of Edessa a heretic.
[5] The other sources for the later centuries are less clear, but may include the lost chronicle of Jacob of Edessa (died 708), which was known at Qarṭmin.
[9] The Chronicle's coverage of political affairs, including military encounters between the Abbasids and the Romans (Byzantines), between 762 and 819 is especially valuable.
[4] It does not mention the caliphs Yazīd III and Ibrāhīm ibn al-Walīd, who ruled briefly in 744, because they were not recognized in Upper Mesopotamia.
[11] The last event recorded is the consecration as patriarch of Dionysius of Tel Maḥre,[3] which is dated to 819 although it actually took place in August 818.