Prince Svimon of Kartli

Svimon became involved in the politics and administration of the country during the regency of his half-brother, Vakhtang, who ruled Kartli, with his capital at Tbilisi, in the absence of the two successive kings, his uncle George XI (Gurgin Khan) and his brother Kaikhosro (Kay Khusraw Khan), at the Safavid Iranian military service in Afghanistan, from 1703 to 1712.

During this period of time, Svimon stood by Vakhtang, a prolific ruler, who substantially revised the Georgian law and oversaw a series of political reforms and cultural projects.

[1] After the death of Kaikhosro on the Afghan front in 1711, Vakhtang repaired to Isfahan to receive his investiture from Shah Sultan Husayn in 1712, leaving Svimon as a regent (janeshin) in Kartli.

During his tenure, Svimon continued to support Vakhtang's cultural projects, such as sponsoring the recently opened printing press in Tbilisi[1] and, further, revived a monetary series in copper with specifically Georgian features in parallel to the standard Safavid silver coinage struck at the shah's mint in Tbilisi.

Svimon was then with Vakhtang and Bakar in their guerrilla war and, joined by Shanshe, Duke of Ksani, attacked, unsuccessfully, Constantine's Lesgian mercenaries in the Tsilkani fortress, north of Tbilisi.

Eventually, Svimon followed Vakhtang, dispossessed of his kingdom, into an exile in the Russian Empire, while Jesse once again attained to the throne of Kartli, this time under the Ottoman hegemony.

Svimon's widow Anna filed a complaint to the Russian senate, requesting that Nikoloz, as an extramarital child, not be allowed to bear the Bagration surname.