[3] Mishaqa's memoir of the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war is valuable to historians, as it is the only account written by a survivor[4] of the massacre of Syrian Christians in Damascus, Syria.

Mikhail's father, Jirjis Mishaqa II, moved to Deir al-Qamar, then controlled by the Shihabs, to escape the religious repression of al-Jazzar, the governor of Sidon.

In 1848, Mikhail Mishaqa converted from Greek Catholicism to Protestantism, after coming in contact with American Protestant missionaries and reading a translation of Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion... by Alexander Keith.

Mikhail Mishaqa began his career as a goldsmith but became a scribe and then chief treasurer for the Amir of Mount Lebanon, Bashir II's household.

[3] Mishaqa's most important works as a historian include the much quoted "A Response to a Proposition by Beloved Ones" (1873) (الجواب على إقتراح الأحباب, al-Jawāb `alā Iqtirāḥ al-Aḥbāb) and "History of events which took place in Syria on its coast and the Mount in 1782-1841" (1843) (ـاريـخ حـوادث جـرت بـالـشـام و سـواحـل بـر الـشـام و الـجـبـل، 1782-1841 م Ta’rih Hawadit Jarat bil-Sham wa-Sawahil Barr al-Sham wa-l-Jabal, 1782-1841 m).