 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 Chkheidze family of Shorapani, and the Agiashvili of Tsutskhvati, and took control of the royal domain in Upper Imereti.His daughter, Tamar, 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.