A son of David XI of Kartli, he took refuge in Persia after his father was dislodged by the Ottoman invasion in 1578.

[2] Around the mid 1590s, he assisted Farhad Khan Qaramanlu in arranging a match for Abbas I with a daughter of the Amilakhori noble family.

[2] In 1615/1616, he was installed by Abbas I as a puppet king/khan in Kartli on the deposition of his cousin, King Luarsab II the Martyr.

Considered as a renegade, he was disgusted by most of the kingdom’s population and, in spite of the Persian presence, he was unable to control even seemingly loyal nobility.

His short reign was spent mostly in the town of Bolnisi, where he died in 1619, to be succeeded by his son, Simon II (Semayun Khan).