Son of Patriarch Macarius III Ibn al-Za'im, Paul accompanied his father in his travels throughout Constantinople, Wallachia, Moldavia, Ukraine, and Russia, as an attempt to raise funds and support for their Church (from 1652 to 1659, and from 1666 to 1669).
[3] Paul wrote down an account of his visits, The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch (edited in Arabic).
[4] It is important as a source on Wallachia, documenting the main events of Constantin Şerban's rule and the Ottoman expedition of 1657.
In that work Paul also talks about the Cossack Country under the "reign of the Khatman Zenobius Akhmil" (Hetman Bohdan-Zynoviy Khmelnytsky).
[citation needed] He wrote also a History of the Patriarchs of Antioch.