Teimuraz I of Kakheti
Daud Khan was the son of Allahverdi Khan, a former Georgian gholam ("military slave") from the Undiladze clan who rose through the highest ranks in the Safavid administration under Shah Abbas I of Persia (r. 1588-1629). Daud-Khan, unlike his father and older brother, Imam-Quli Khan, had closer ties with the country of his origin; he was married to Helene, the sister of the Georgian king Teimuraz I of Kakheti (Tahmuras Khan), and was on friendly terms with the Georgian warlord Giorgi Saakadze (Murav Beg). Daud-Khan tried to mediate a conflict between Abbas I and the shah's recalcitrant Georgian subjects. After Shah Safi succeeded upon the death of Abbas in 1629, the new shah's mentor and yet another influential Georgian at the Safavid court, Khosrow Mirza, succeeded in sidelining the rival Undiladze clan, and persuaded Safi into removing Daud-Khan from the majles in 1630/31. In 1633, alarmed by the political purges within the Iranian ruling élite, Daud fled to Georgia, where he apparently encouraged his brother-in-law Teimuraz I to renew his rebellion against the Safavid overlordship. Daud claimed that one of his brothers was actually the son of the late shah Abbas I and that he, having 30,000 troops under his command, had already conquered all of Fars, Bahrain, Lar, Hormuz, Khuzestan, Arabestan, and Hoveyzeh.