A reformer, he succeeded in subduing the army and destroying the power of the nobles by abolishing the semi-independent principalities that were ruining the unity of the country, before uniting eastern Georgia under a single sceptre.
David X is also known to have survived another invasion by Persia, and is thus considered to be the first in a series of eleven kings who fought against their Safavid neighbours over the next two centuries.
In 1488, in the midst of war against the Turkomans, he was associated with his other brothers to his father's throne,[2] but two years later, in 1490, the Darbazi (royal council) officially put an end to the existence of the Kingdom of Georgia,[3] which had been de facto divided since the 13th century.
In 1518, the Persian shah Ismail I of the newly established Safavid Empire, sent in an army under Div Sultan Rumlu, who was joined by the Georgian prince Qvarqvare III Jaqeli, atabeg of Samtskhe.
David besieged the Maghrani Castle where Levan had taken positions, but soon had to abandon the siege as the Qizilbash appeared again in the Georgian lands.
The Kartlian capital Tbilisi was taken by treachery and garrisoned by a large Persian force, making east Georgia nominally fall for the first time under Safavid rule.
Prince Vakhushti reports that the mother of Luarsab was captured by Shah Tahmasp I at Ateni and carried off to Iran, where she committed suicide by poisoning in 1556.