Prince Abkhazi was born of the Georgian noble family, whose ancestor had fled Abkhazia to the Kingdom of Kakheti in eastern Georgia in the 17th century. His early life and career unfolded against the backdrop of a sequence of dramatic events in Georgia, from the Iranian invasion in 1795 through the death of the last kings of Georgia, Heraclius II and George XII in 1798 and 1800, respectively, and the ensuing dynastic crisis, all of which led to the arrival of the Russian rule by early 1801.