Ashot established himself in his patrimonial duchy of Klarjeti, where he restored the castle of Artanuji said to have been built by the Iberian king Vakhtang I Gorgasali in the 5th century, and received the Byzantine protection, being recognized as the presiding prince and kouropalates of Iberia.

To revive the country devastated by the Arabs and cholera epidemics, he patronized the local monastic communities established by Grigol Khandzteli, and encouraged the settlement of the Georgians in the region.

Ashot, joined by the Byzantine vassal king of Abkhazia, Theodosius II, met the emir on the Ksani, winning a victory and pushing the Kakhetians from central Iberian lands.

[3] The Bagrationi's fortunes reversed when Khalid ibn Yazid, the Caliph's viceroy of Arminiya, moved in to reinforce the central Arab authority in the Caucasian polities in 827/828 through the Emirate of Tbilisi.

Driven by the Arabs from central Iberia, Ashot fell back to the Nigali valley where he was assassinated by renegades at the altar of a local church.