Abdisho was first bishop of Shiggar (Sinjar) and the province of Bet 'Arbaye (Arbayestan) around 1285 and from before 1291 metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia.
The battle was fought during a campaign ordered by Emperor Gordian III to retake the Roman cities of Hatra, Nisibis and Carrhae.
In 596 Sabrisho, an alumnus of the school of Nisibis, was appointed successor of Ishoʿyahb I as Catholicos.
Cities with substantial Jewish populations – Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia, Arbela – joined the rebellion and slaughtered their small Roman garrisons.
At the same time there was at Nisibis, in northern Mesopotamia, an excellent Jewish college, at the head of which stood Judah ben Bathyra, and in which many Judean scholars found refuge at the time of the persecutions.