As this authorship attribution is widely accepted to be false (pseudepigraphical), the author is frequently referred to as Pseudo-Sebeos.
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 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.
[8] The author places himself in the tradition of Armenian history-writing and indicates that he lived close to the events that he describes—that is, in the second half of the 7th century (the history ends with Mu'awiya I becoming caliph).
Thomson writes that the author displays a knowledge of contemporary conditions and Iranian culture that would be surprising for someone living in later times and that the history resembles more an attempt to understand recent events and the realization of God’s will than "a subsequent, matured reflection with a specific purpose.
He shows a strong knowledge of religious matters,[10] makes many biblical allusions and quotations, and appears to have had access to the Armenian church archives at Dvin.
[11][6] He writes from a Persian rather than a Roman perspective,[12] but his sympathies are with Christian Byzantium in the wars between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires.
[10][14] The first section recounts the traditional story of the foundation of Armenia by Hayk (commonly known as the Primary History), as well as an account of the creation of the Parthian Empire.
The second section includes a list of Armenian, Persian, and Greek kings and an account of the origins of the Mamikonian family.
It concludes with the results of the first Muslim civil war (the accession of Mu’awiya) and describes its effects on Armenians.