The youngest son of Prince Paata
Abashidze, he served as a priest until about 1684 when he entered politics after the death of his elder brother
Paata Abashidze and began aggressively expanding his patrimonial fiefdom. He dispossessed the
House of Chkheidze of
Shorapani, and the
House of Agiashvili of
Tsutskhvati, and took control of the royal domain in Upper Imereti. Princess Tamar
Abashidze, his daughter by his marriage to Princess Tamar
Chijavadze, was married to the two successive kings of Imereti,
Alexander IV and
George V. During the reign of the latter monarch, Abashidze effectively ran the government and acted as an all-powerful kingmaker. In 1699, he gave his daughter Anika in marriage to King
Simon of Imereti, but they divorced in 1700. In 1701, Abashidze compelled King
Mamia of Imereti to abdicate and seized the throne for himself. He managed to establish a degree of stability in Imereti and ceased to pay tribute to the
Ottoman Empire, triggering a
military response in 1703. He also patronized culture and learning. Deposed after a revolt by the nobles, in favour of the rightful
Bagrationi king
George VII, Abashidze took refuge at the court of
Vakhtang VI in
Tbilisi. He died there in 1722, and was buried in the
Katskhi monastery in Imereti. ==References==