Paul Merab (real name: Petre Merabishvili, ka, პეტრე მერაბიშვილი; September 22, 1876, Ude,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

– November 13, 1930,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a Georgian

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

and researcher of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. Merab was born in a Georgian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

community, now Samtskhe-Javakheti region in south Georgia. A Sorbonne graduate, Merab was hired in

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to work as a physician for the

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

Emperor

Menilek II Menelik II ( ; horse name Aba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 August 1844 – 12 December 1913), baptised as Sahle Maryam (ሣህለ ማርያም ''sahlä maryam'') was king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Et ...

for several years. He lived in Ethiopia from 1908 to 1929, except for the years of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

when he volunteered in the French military. In 1910, he founded the first

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

which he called "Pharmacie de la Géorgie". In 1929, he finally resettled to

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, where he published his informative researches and memories of Ethiopia.

References

* Chris Prouty, Eugene Rosenfeld, Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia and Eritrea, p. 131. Scarecrow Press, 1994 * ჟვანია ნ. საქართველო-ეთიოპიის ურთიერთობის ისტორიიდან // ქართველური მემკვიდრეობა . – 2000 . – ტ. 4 . – გვ. 282–285 n Georgian {{DEFAULTSORT:Merab, Paul Physicians from Georgia (country) 1876 births 1930 deaths Expatriates from the Russian Empire in France Expatriates from the Russian Empire Expatriates in Ethiopia University of Paris alumni Ethiopianists Pharmacists from Georgia (country) Emigrants from Georgia (country) to France