Abbott's travel report is one of a series of reports on the Eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire published by the Royal Geographical Society in the 1840s. Other travellers of this group include Ainsworth, Brant, Pollington, Shiel and Suter. Together these travellers covered large parts of the area, thus making a considerable contribution to contemporary geographical knowledge. Abbott started from Erzurum, and visted Kars, the ruins of Ani, and Kağızman. At the time of Abbott's travel, this area was again in the hands of the Ottomans, after having been occupied by the Russians in the Ottoman-Russian war 1828-1829 . On his way Abbott found many deserted villages, mostly of Armenians who fled during the war to Russia.

He stayed in Erzurum between 1835-1837, perhaps as assistant with the British Consulate there. Later in his career he occupied several consular posts in Persia.

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