ABSTRACT
After the emperor had spent three years in those parts, he returned to Dambiâ and found that Harbô had just died. And then Isaac sent word to him, saying, ‘My lord should not summon me, because I am frightened; and he should not come in search of me because he will not find me! On hearing this, the emperor was extremely angry and replied, ‘When did we summon you, for you to say that {we should not summon you}<we summoned you> and you would not come? And when did we say that we would go in search of you, for you to reply that we would not find you? All your words are like those of a child who does not know what he is saying.’ After winter, when the great men saw that Isaac was not fulfilling his obligations, and since they wished him well, they begged the emperor to show him generosity so that he would not lose his soul by joining the Turks, and they persuaded him to send word to him to obey and to keep his command as viceroy of <[f. 320v/309v]> Tigrê. So the emperor sent Za Paraclitôs, Azbê, Ite Odît and Abba {Camâ}<Camad> to come to an agreement with him on these terms. When they arrived, they told him what they wanted. He replied that it should be so, but he would send a monk to bind the emperor and great men to the agreement on pain of excommunication, and afterwards he too would swear under excommunication to keep it. With that they returned and, once the emperor and empress and all the great men had sworn under excommunication, they went back to Isaac with a monk from the emperor to bind him under excommunication. He received them well, but kept putting off the oath from one day to the next. In the meantime, the emperor sent him the gold chain that he wore round his neck and a gold bracelet, many valuable robes and one of his personal mules as a sign that he confirmed him in his command and that the agreement would be binding. But when they pressed him to take the oath of excommunication, he created a diversion by saying that he had heard that Amâ { Guiorguîs}< Guinguis > had taken someone from the house of Israel to raise as emperor, and that they should send a message to the emperor about what was happening and he would do so as well, and he swore that he would not be part of any such thing. And that was false, because he had started everything, and he secretly sent a message to Amâ {Guiorguîs}< Guinguis> to send him that Israelite quickly so he could make him emperor publicly. They wrote to the emperor as he had said and showed him the letter, but they also sent a message by word of mouth telling him of his malice.
