Behnam was born at Ḥadl in Tur Abdin in the 14th century, and was the son of John of the Habbo Kanni family, who were originally from Bartella in the Nineveh Plains.
[4] Other prominent members of the family include the deacon and physician Behnam (d. 1293), son of the priest Mubarak, and the writer Abu Nasr, abbot of the monastery of Saint Matthew (fl. 1260–1290).
[8][nb 2] As patriarch, Behnam engaged with the Catholic Church and despatched Abdallah, archbishop of Edessa, as his representative to the Council of Florence.
[12] Upon the success of negotiations between Abdallah and a number of cardinals and theologians, union between the two churches was agreed and celebrated at the Lateran Palace at Rome on 30 September 1444 with the declaration of the papal bull Multa et Admirabilia.
[15] In the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, relations with the Catholic Church became untenable, and consequently Behnam's union as signed in 1444 was renounced.