 Several years of bitter faction-fighting followed, in which the civil authorities in Baghdad held the balance between Muhammad, governor of Mosul, who supported Yohannan Hormizd, and Isma'il, governor of Amadiya, who sheltered Ishoyahb and his followers.In 1788 Yohannan's nephew Shemon was arrested on a visit to the village of Bir Sivi in the Zakho district on Isma'il's orders, and was only released by the joint efforts of the governor of Mosul and Sulaiman, governor of Baghdad.In 1792 Yohannan and his two brothers went to Amadiya on business, and were arrested, beaten and imprisoned for three and a half months by the Turkish authorities.