[2] He was in turn defeated during the invasion of Kartli by King Teimuraz I of Kakheti in 1627 and went into exile in the Ottoman Empire, while his wife and nephews, including Vakhtang, took refuge in Imereti.

[3] After the failure of Teimuraz I of an attempt by the exiled family to retake their domains, the House of Mukhrani fell into the hands of Prince David of Kakheti.

[4] A few months later, Simon II was killed by the Duke of Aragvi, Teimuraz I of Kakheti regained possession of Kartli and the fate of Mukhrani and Vakhtang became uncertain.

[8] These negotiations failed and David of Aragvi was assassinated in the fortress of Vakhtang by the guards of Rostom Khan, who used Mukhrani as a base to invade the Aragvian province of Dusheti.

[9] Following Rostom Khan's failure to obtain Persian reinforcements, Teimuraz entered Kartli and formed an alliance with Vakhtang and the Duchy of Ksani, before besieging Gori with Mukhranian troops.

[16] Vakhtang's soldiers killed the Kakhetian general Revaz Cholokashvili, forcing Teimuraz to flee the battlefield and take refuge in eastern Kakheti, where he was pursued by Rostom.

It was then that Rostom agreed to name the ambitious Bakhuta Beg (Vakhtang II of Mukhrani) as his adopted son and heir to the throne.

[17] Parsadan Gorgijanidze, a close advisor to King Rostom, was sent to the court of Shah Abbas II to ask his permission regarding the adoption of Vakhtang.

[17] It was during his stay that the Georgian diplomatic delegation, led by Gorgijanidze, informed the shah of the death of Vakhtang Rostom Mirza and formally requested the recognition of Bakhuta Beg as heir to the throne.

Returning, he began to refer to himself as Son of Rostom in official documents[19] and, while calling himself Shah Navaz Khan in royal decrees, he preserved his Vakhtang nomenclature in order to gain the support of Christians in Kartli.

[21] The servants of Rostom and those of Queen Mariam are forced to swear allegiance to the new crown prince and he receives as an appanage a series of villages in Savakhtago.

[23] Since 1623, a destructive war pitted the Kingdom of Imereti against the Principality of Mingrelia in western Georgia and King Rostom offered logistical support to the Mingrelians.

[27] A strategic disagreement between Vakhtang and Zaal then took place, according to the testimony of the royal envoy Parsadan, who visited the military camp in order to receive the signatures of the two men on a letter of submission to Shah Abbas II.

[29] But these unions fail to alleviate the disagreement between the nobles and the heir and Zaal urges the lords of Kakheti to oppose Vakhtang when the old king Rostom falls ill.[29] The royal advisor Parsadan Gorgijanidze, Baïndur Tumanishvili and the Persian delegate Mohamed Zemena were responsible for negotiating, in vain,[30] between the two camps.

He bequeathed to his adopted son the title of king and the domination of Kartli and divided Kakheti between the control of the Persians[27] and the Ertso and Tianeti for Zaal of Aragvi.

[26] While Rostom's death theoretically ensured Vakhtang's ascension to the throne of Kartli, Shah Abbas II's envoy did not immediately recognize him as monarch, initially treating him as the kingdom's interim administrator.

[32] The latter in turn tried to have himself proclaimed king by landing at Avlabari, just outside Tbilisi, but seeing the strength of the central troops, he took refuge in his domains in Dusheti, while refusing to submit to Vakhtang.

[33] On January 1, 1659, Persia officially recognized Vakhtang as monarch of Kartli,[33] authorizing his coronation as king at Mtskheta according to ancient Georgian Orthodox tradition.

Afraid of being deported to Iran to join the shah's harem, she first sent him a lock of her white hair to demonstrate her advanced age, while showing her face as much as possible in public.

[32] In Georgia, he is crowned in Georgian Orthodox rites and preserves his name Vakhtang V, King of Kartli, for the Christian population, a level of autonomy generally unacceptable for Safavid Iran.

[40] This close relationship between Kartli and Persia, however, takes place within the framework of broad control by the Persian authorities in eastern Georgia.

At the insistence of the shah of Iran, Vakhtang had to divorce, with great reluctance, Rodam on his accession to the throne of Kartli, to marry Mariam Dadiani, (died 1682), widow of his adopted father Rostom.