«Kartlis tskhovreba» was written at the instance of the ruling, monarchs, hence it reflects the ideology of the official historiography.

Writing his work Sumbat used Georgian and foreign written sources. «History» is rich in factual and chronological evidence, which is often corroborated by foreign sources, epigraphic data and material culture.

Sumbat's «History» (especially beginning of the 6-th century) is a highly valuable historical source for the history of Georgia and neighboring countries.

Sumbat's «History» is contained in the 17-th and the 18-th centuries Mss of «Kartlis tskhovreba». It has been published separately (in 1890 and in 1949), as well as in the corpus publication of «Kartlis tskhovreba» (in 1906 and 1955). The text has been translated into Russian (1900) and French (1849).

The present Russian translation has been made from the 1955 edition with account of the variants readings of the oldest MS.