01 — Foundations
The world from which St. Abo came and the world into which he came: an Arab perfumer of Abbasid Baghdad, and the city of Tbilisi under the Arab emirate, capital of a Kartli ruled by the Christian prince Nerse in whose service Abo travelled north to Georgia c. 775.
Tradition: Georgian Orthodox
This section establishes the two poles of Abo’s origin. The first file follows Abo himself: an Arab of Baghdad, a Muslim by birth and upbringing, and a skilled maker of perfumes and ointments, who at about seventeen or eighteen entered the service of the exiled Kartlian prince Nerse. The second file sets the historical stage — Tbilisi and eastern Georgia (Kartli) under the Arab emirate in the eighth century, the position of the local Christian nobility under Muslim overlordship, and the circumstances that brought Nerse, and with him Abo, from Baghdad to the Caucasus.
Files
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| abo-the-arab-perfumer.md | Abo’s origins: born in Baghdad c. 756/765, an Arab and a Muslim, a skilled perfumer; his entry into Prince Nerse’s service |
| tbilisi-under-the-arab-emirate.md | The historical context: Tbilisi and Kartli under the Arab emirate, Prince Nerse, and the coming of Abo c. 775 |
See Also
- 02 — The Conversion — what followed Abo’s arrival in Kartli
- The Thirteen Assyrian Fathers — the Christian monastic Kartli that drew Abo