[3] The eldest son of the heroic king Luarsab I of Kartli and Tamar of Imereti, he commanded his father's army at the Battle of Garisi against the Persian invaders, 1556.

As the Kartlian capital Tbilisi remained in the Persian hands, Simon had a residence in Gori, whence he ruled over the territories recaptured from the occupiers.

His brother, David, recently submitted to the Safavid Shah Tahmasp I, converted to Islam, and returned with a Persian army to claim the crown.

Simon blockaded Tbilisi and won the battles at Dighomi (1567) and Samadlo (1569), but he was finally defeated and taken prisoner at P'artskhisi, 1569.

[2] Then incumbent Safavid king Mohammad Khodabanda wanted a puppet ruler in Kartli that was popular amongst the local population.

[2] In the same year he accepted the Safavid king's demands, and, in order to invade Tbilisi, he received cannon and 5,000 Qizilbash soldiers led by general Ali-Qoli Khan.

In response, sultan Mehmed III sent a large punitive force led by Jafar Pasha, beylerbey of Tabriz in 1599.

[6] Upon the Simon's arrest the Sultan Mehmed III made the following order: From Morocco to the Caspian Sea, from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf, I order to exhibit the carpets in all of my realm and to celebrate for 3 days the arrest of King Simon.Simon was sent to Constantinople where the Georgian noblewoman Gulchara was brought to care for the aged king.