Nerse succeeded his father, Adarnase III, Curopalates of Iberia, and defied the Abbasid Caliphate's hegemony in Georgia.
Released by Caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), Nerse was restored in Iberia in 775, but he again had difficulties with the Arabs, and was forced to flee, through the Daryal Pass, to the Khazars.
Received with honors, but unable to gain any substantial support there, Nerse moved to Abkhazia where his family had taken refuge.
Nerse reconciled with the accomplished fact and, with the Arab permission, returned to Iberia, retiring from politics.
By 786, when his Christianized Arab servant, Abo, was martyred, Nerse had disappeared from history.