Compiled in Arabic in the tenth century, the Chronicle of Seert is a major source for the history of Christianity in Sasanian Persia since it draws heavily on earlier Syriac sources that have often otherwise been lost. Published in four separate fascicles of the Patrologia Orientalis (iv/3, v/2, vii/2 and xiii/4) by Addai Scher, the learned Chaldean archbishop of Siirt (Seert) who was martyred in 1915, this Chronicle, though often cited, has rarely been studied in its own right and Philip Wood's book has the considerable merit of being the first monograph to be devoted solely to it. The Chronicle is known from two complementary manuscripts, both with lacunae, one covering c. 250–423 and the other c. 484–650; both the beginning and the end of the work, as well as the sections that would have covered 423–84, are lost. Wood's aim is to identify and explore the different layers that make up the Chronicle in its final form, the core of the work being, in his view, a history of the Catholicoi of the Church of the East: this embryo patriarchal history gradually widened its purview over the course of time, additionally providing biographical summaries of monastic figures and ecclesiastical hierarchs, and eventually, by the sixth century, incorporating material on select individuals and events from beyond the western borders of the Sasanian Empire. By making use both of extant sources and of somewhat late Christian Arabic works that cover the same period, Wood sets out to isolate different layers within the Chronicle, each with its own concerns and biases which can be separated out from those of the compiler of the Chronicle in its present form. After an introductory chapter on the general character of the Chronicle and on the background of Sasanian history, Wood proceeds by taking eight different topics, in chronological sequence, and examining how these are treated in both the Chronicle and in other sources. The reader is thus provided with illuminating discussions of the following: the synods and martyrdoms under Yazdgard i and Bahram v, the two different martyr acts of Simeon bar Sabba‘e, the genesis of a centralising narrative focused on the catholicosate, the controversial synods of the 480s, the reception of Roman ecclesiastical history, the monastic revival of the mid-sixth century onwards and the role of aristocratic converts to Christianity, the ‘Last great war of antiquity’ and the role of the Church in Abbasid Baghdad, as illustrated by the compiler's treatment of early Arab rule.

Wood's discussion of these topics is always illuminating and based on a wide knowledge of the relevant sources and secondary literature. Occasionally he proves to be a little too eager in his discerning of later developments in a particular text; thus, for example, he suggests (pp. 81–2) that the final version of the text of the Acts of Miles may date well into the sixth century, on the basis of similarities between Miles's journeys to the west and those of the Catholicos Aba. Such a development is in fact very unlikely, given that the printed form of the text of the Acts of Miles is already attested in two very early manuscripts, at least one of which is likely to date from the late fifth century (as is in fact indicated in the reference cited in support of his suggestion).

As he points out in the conclusion, his findings for the Chronicle of Seert find a close parallel in recent studies of the Arabic History of the patriarchs of Alexandria – studies that have been further corroborated by the very recent discovery by Alessandro Bausi and Alberto Camplani of new and important source material in Ge‘ez (Ethiopic).

Although Wood's analysis of the different layers discernible in the Chronicle of Seert (and in other related sources) is inevitably often more suggestive than conclusive, his discussions of the eight selected topics are all well-informed and provide a valuable starting point for further research. Justifiably enough, Wood's concerns are with wider historical and historiographical issues; what is also needed, as far as the Chronicle of Seert is concerned, is a series of detailed studies on the individual sections of the Chronicle, aimed at identifying the compiler's specific sources; and then, in cases where these sources otherwise survive, to go on to investigate how he has used them. Along with a bibliography, Wood has provided a listing of the 188 short sections of the Chronicle that survive; an index to his book would also have been helpful. It is much to be hoped that his monograph will also provide a stimulus to further studies of this important Chronicle.