He was born in Barṭelle of Tuma Gabriel Mari and Shmuni Isḥaq Mtuka, and was given the baptismal name Shābā (ʿAbd al-Aḥad). He attended the seminary at Dayro d-Mor Matay in 1923, and in 1931 began teaching at Taw Mim Simkath in Beirut. He became a monk in 1933. He was sent to India in the same year where he was ordained a deacon and a priest. He returned in 1946 to Mosul. In 1950 he was consecrated a bp. for Beirut and Syria, then patr. in 1957. He transferred the patriarchate from Ḥimṣ to Damascus. Under his patriarchate, the diocesan map of the church changed as a result of continuous migration to the West. He signed an agreement of understanding with Pope Paul VI in 1971. He mastered liturgical music which he studied under Julius Elias Qoro while he was stationed in Malankara. In 1960, during a visit to NJ, he recorded the entire Beth Gazo, the W.-Syr. musical reference, on reel tapes. He composed a collection of Syriac poems published under the title Mimre mgabayo (Aleppo, 1959). His other works, all in Arabic, include a history of the church (2 vols.; 1953 and 1957), a history of the Syr. Orth. Church in India (1951; ET by M. Moosa under the title History of the Syrian Church in India[2009]), and an edition of the Syr. text of the Martyrs of Ḥimyar.