Babai the Great and Mar Aba administered the Nestorian Church for 17 years. Attempts were made during that time to ask the king to change his mind and allow an election, but influences in the court, such as Gabriel of Shiggar, and the king's wife Shirin (who was under Gabriel's influence) blocked the requests. Gabriel was seeking to maneuver things such that the decision of Catholicos would have been in his own (monophysite) hands, an option completely unacceptable to the bishops.