Mamia was a son and successor of Liparit II Dadiani, who had emerged as a semi-independent ruler in the process of dissolution of the Kingdom of Georgia.
Mamia was culturally active in Abkhazia and continued his predecessors' efforts to secure borders against the North Caucasian mountainous tribes of Zygia.
Mamia was a son of Liparit II Dadiani on whose death he succeeded—according to the early 18th-century Georgian scholar Prince Vakhushti—in 1512.
[2] By the time Mamia acceded to power, the medieval Kingdom of Georgia had disintegrated and the Dadiani had become largely autonomous, nominally under vassalage of the kings of Imereti.
The first encounter with the fiercely defending Zygii was won by the allies, but, on the next day, many battle-fatigued Mingrelian nobles defected their lord at the instigation of Tsandia Inal-Ipa,[4][5] an Abkhaz.