[2] George was relatively young man when he first put himself forward as a candidate for the patriarchate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in 960/961.
[b] Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Ibrāhīm, the Christian treasurer of the Emir Muʿizz al-Dawla, used his influence to procure the election of Israel of Kashkar.
George stood for election again when the metropolitans gathered in 963,[c] being passed over in favour of ʿAbdishoʿ I, the emir's preferred candidate.
[4] In the 18th century, Giuseppe Simone Assemani assigned the anonymous work known as the Expositio officiorum ecclesiae to him.
Modern scholars do not believe it was written by George of Arbela and may instead refer to its author as Pseudo-George.