In 1609, Teimuraz was in person present at the
battle of Tashiskari, in which the Kartlians under
Giorgi Saakadze annihilated an Ottoman-allied
Crimean Tatar force, saving the young king
Luarsab II. After the Safavid shah
Abbas I militarily subjugated eastern Georgia in 1615, a succession of puppet Muslim rulers was installed to rule Kartli, but their authority was shaky in the areas other than the heavily Iranian-garrisoned capital,
Tbilisi, and the districts of
Lower Kartli. That vacuum of power was temporarily filled by the nobility of Kartli by appointing Teimuraz as regent in 1623. In 1625, Teimuraz joined an uprising against the Safavid hegemony led by Giorgi Saakadze. Shah Abbas dispatched a large punitive army which clashed with the united forces of Kartlians and
Kakhetians at Marabda on 1 July 1625. According to the 18th-century chronicler
Prince Vakhushti, Teimuraz was killed while gallantly fighting the enemy. A word spread out that the fallen Teimuraz was King
Teimuraz I of Kakheti, turning the Georgians into flight and their initial success into a rout. == Family ==