Having distinguished himself in the campaigns against the Ottoman armies and rising through the ranks, he became yasavol-e sohbat (personal attendant or senior squire) to the shah in 1603–4, sardar (general) in 1623–4, Divan-beigi (chancellor) in 1626–7, tofangchi-aghasi (commander of the musketeer corps) in 1630, sepahsalar (commander-in-chief) in 1631, and beglarbegi (governor) of Azerbaijan in 1635.
[6] At the head of an Iranian army, Rostam Khan helped a fellow Muslim Georgian in the Safavid service and a younger brother of his father's suzerain Bagrat Khan, Khosrow Mirza, secure the throne of Kartli, which Khosrow Mirza officially acceded to under the name of Rostam on 18 February 1633.
However, Rostam Khan Saakadze's excesses in dealing with the Georgian opposition, especially his devastating raid into the Tsitsishvili family estates, occasioned the split between the two.
[7] Recalled from Kartli by the Iranian government, Rostam Khan Saakadze was commander in Khorasan at the accession of king Abbas II in 1642.
The new king's vizier Saru Taqi considered him a personal rival and secured a decree to put him to death for having refused to obey an order from the capital.