At the death of Andrew Akijan, in July 1677, Abdul Masih misled the pro-Catholic faction professing himself in communion with the Catholic Church in order to be elected as Patriarch, but as soon as he obtained the firman of appointment by the Ottoman Sultan, he did a complete about-face.

In Rome they met Pope Innocent XII and they remained there till 1700 when, through the support of Leopold I, Emperor of Austria and of Louis XIV of France, they could reach Istanbul.

Bishop Amin Kahn Risqallah died the same day he arrived in the castle, on 18 November, because of the wounds suffered during the march, and the others captives were kept imprisoned for some months.

Notwithstanding the fierce complaints of the Western rules, Shahbaddin was not released,[7] and on 4 March 1702[8] he was offered a coffee by the commanding officer of the castle, and in the same night he died, quite surely poisoned.

During their captivity, on 23 November 1703, they elected as new Patriarch the maphrian and Archbishop of Nineveh Isaac Basilios Joubeir (or Basil Ishaq ibn Jubair, c. 1645–1721), who at the time was in Istanbul in the French consulate.