Background
Teimuraz was the eldest son of Vakhtang I by his wife, Khvaramze.
commander of the Banner of Shida Kartli
Teimuraz was the eldest son of Vakhtang I by his wife, Khvaramze.
At the same time, he was an ex officio commander of the Banner of Shida Kartli and regent of Kartli, from 1623 to 1625, during the rebellion against Safavid Iran. Teimuraz was killed at the battle of Marabda against the Iranian punitive army. Vakhtang"s other known sons were Kaikhosro (died 3 October 1629) and Bagrat (born 16 July 1572).
According to Cyril Toumanoff"s hypothesis, Teimuraz and Bagrat were the same person, the latter being a name adopted by the prince on his accession to the lordship of Mukhrani.
When his father died in 1580, the lordship of Mukhrani passed to the late prince"s nephew and Teimuraz"s uncle, Erekle I (died 1605), apparently, in the capacity of a regent for the underage Prince Teimuraz. In 1582, Mukhrani itself became the scene of a major confrontation in which King Simon I of Kartli inflicted defeat on the invading Ottoman army.
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 of 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. 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.