John Tohabi

late 11th - early 12th century[a]) was a Georgian ordained priest, hieromonachos[3] and icon painter whose works were donated in the High Middle Ages to the Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai and its monastic community,[4][5] originally all displayed together for the decoration of the entire church.

Such combination of Greek and Georgian languages in the inscriptions of the icons indicates that John belonged to Byzantine culture, but at the same time he underlined his nationality.

His Christological cycle, the Miracles and the Passion of Jesus, alongside Life of the Virgin, is one of six icons or hexaptych[18] of John preserved on Sinai.

[20] The reverse of all six icons has a Greek epigram written in dodecasyllable[21] meter style,[22] while individual figures, compositions on the menologium and the Last Judgment panels, have bilingual Georgian-Greek inscriptions.

[27] The icon includes the Blachernitissa, representing the Virgin with the caressing standing Child, and Hodegetria which was a palladium of the Byzantine capital.

[28][29] John, with his complex panel wanted to explicitly demonstrate that, together with Christian dogmas and theological ideas, the icons manifest the identities of people.

[44] Increasing the presence of the Georgians on Mount Sinai seems to have been important in the tenth and eleventh centuries when improvements were made to the St George chapel, which was the primary sanctuary of their community.