His Excellency attended the Chaldean Seminary in Mosul for formation and left to Rome on 1933. He attended the Pontifical Urbaniana University, where he earned a master's degree in both philosophy and theology. He then pursued doctoral studies and obtained his PHD. During his academic career he mastered 8 languages: the classic Syriac, Colloquial Syriac (Modern Assyrian), Persian, Arabic, English, French, Italian, and Latin.