Ignatius Simon was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1640 until 1653.
[7] Simon agreed to appoint a Catholic convert, Abdul Ghal Akhijan, as archbishop of Aleppo after he had been invited to dinner twice by François Picquet, the French consul of Aleppo, and received promises that the consul would absorb some of his debts.
[9] It had been intended that Akhijan would then be appointed as the archbishop of Aleppo by Simon, however, Akhijan was rejected by both the Syriac Orthodox community of Aleppo, who refused to accept a Maronite as bishop, and Simon, who was offended that the Maronite patriarch had been asked to consecrate one of his bishops.
[10] Despite François Picquet's efforts to convince Simon over dinner at the consular residence, he refused to acknowledge Akhijan and thus Picquet secured a firman from Sultan Mehmed IV in which Akhijan was officially recognised as the archbishop of Aleppo.
[12] Although some historians identify Simon with an eastern bishop who visited Malabar in India in c. 1652 and was believed to have died there, he is addressed in a letter dated 21 December 1660 from Thoma I that was delivered by the deacon Stephen of Amid.