He wrote a romance, Hermann Agha (London, 1872), A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (London, 1865), Essays on Eastern Questions (London, 1872), and other works.
Ismail Agha Shekak, better known as Simko, living between Van and Urmia, murdered the patriarch of the Nestorians, who fled to Persian territory and called upon the Russians to avenge the murder.