NARRATION OF JOHN, THE MOST REVEREND MONK OF JERUSALEM
A I, a humble man and the least of all, desire to demonstrate before this holy and sacred synod of yours, with all truth, how and when and whence this most evil and God-hated heresy of the Christians—or rather, to speak more truly, of the accusers of Christians and the iconoclasts—took its beginning. Intending to use brevity of speech, I have judged it proper to commit the account to paper and writing, so that nothing of the truth should escape me.
B When the tyrant, or advisor, of the godless Arabs had died (this man was named Seleiman), Umar succeeded him. Upon assuming authority, he immediately summoned the destroyer Masalman, a most hostile foe, and turned him back from this region. By the grace of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ and of His Mother, the holy Theotokos, he returned to Syria having accomplished nothing of what he had hoped, with great shame and the destruction and death of his own Saracen army. After Umar died, he was succeeded by Yazid, a man who was light-headed, C unstable in mind, and not of sound intellect.
Now, there was in Tiberias a leader of the lawless Jews, a sorcerer and instrument of soul-destroying demons, named Sarantapechus, a bitter enemy of the Church of God. Having learned of the instability of the ruler Yazid, this most wicked Jew approached him and attempted to prophesy and predict certain things to him. Having thus crept up to the tyrant and gained his favor, and having made the tyrant’s ears receptive, he said: "I wish, O chief advisor, moved by the benevolence I feel for you, to teach you a way, easy and simple, that will please you, by which length of life will be added to you, and you will remain in possession of your authority for thirty years, provided that you fulfill my words."
And that foolish tyrant, his mind captivated by a longing for longevity (for he was a licentious and dissolute man), replied that whatever he ordered, he would readily do; and if he attained the result, he would reward him with the highest honors. The sorcerous Jew said to him: "Order immediately, with no delay or postponement, that throughout all the regions and places of your dominion..."