The dates of his birth and death are not known precisely, and little can be said of his life other than that he served as the metropolitan bishop of Fars.
[1][2] According to the 14th-century catalogue of the church's writers drawn up by ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha, he wrote three works: a book called On This Universe,[a] a book of law and a treatise on shūdāʿ aʾeras, i.e., the meaning of the winds.
[3] There is an excerpt attributed to Ishoʿbokht that appears to be drawn from a treatise on the six days of Creation.
[4] Ishoʿbokht's legal treatise was originally composed in Persian, but today survives only in translation.
The only direct translation is a Syriac one entitled Maktbānūtā d-ʿal dīnē,[c] often called the Corpus Juris.
The latter is generally considered more likely, although it necessitates placing his theological work (written while the Umayyads were in power) more than two decades before his consecration.
[5] Isho'bokht proposes substantial developments of the procedure followed by the ecclesiastical courts, and promotes in particular the use of oaths.
And though the religion of the Christians is one, the law is not one ... Ishoʿbokht is considered an original mind and one of the most important jurists the Church of the East produced.