Nerse of the Nersianid

Nersianid Dynasty

The Nersianids were an early medieval Georgian princely family. Appearing in the late 5th century, in the reign of King Vakhtang I of Iberia , they figure in the eighth as dukes of Inner Iberia and twice attained, in the persons of Adarnase III and his son Nerse, to the office of Presiding Prince ...

 family, was a ruling prince

Principate of Iberia

The Principate of Iberia is a conventional term applied to an aristocratic regime in early medieval Caucasian Georgia that flourished in the period of interregnum between the sixth and ninth centuries, when the leading political authority was exercised by a succession of princes...

 of Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...

 (Kartli

Kartli

Kartli is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari , on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages...

, eastern Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

) from c. 760 to 772 and again from 775 to 779/80.

Nerse succeeded his father, Adarnase III

Adarnase III of Iberia

Adarnase III , of the Nersianid Dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia from c. 748 to 760. Originally a hereditary duke of Inner Iberia, he seems to have succeeded the Guaramid ruler Guaram III whose son was married to Adarnase's daughter...

, Curopalates

Curopalates

Kouropalatēs, Latinized as curopalates or curopalata and Anglicized as curopalate, was a Byzantine court title, one of the highest from the time of Emperor Justinian I to that of the Komnenoi in the 12th century...

 of Iberia, and defied the Arab

Arab

Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 hegemony in Georgia. In 772, he was summoned by Caliph

Caliph

The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word   which means "successor" or "representative"...

 al-Mansur

Al-Mansur

Al-Mansur, Almanzor or Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur was the second Abbasid Caliph from 136 AH to 158 AH .-Biography:...

 to Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 and cast in prison. Released by Caliph al-Mahdi

Al-Mahdi

Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Mahdi , was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 158 AH to 169 AH . He succeeded his father, al-Mansur....

 (775-785), Nerse was restored in Iberia in 775, but he again had difficulties with the Arabs, and was forced to flee, through the Daryal Pass, to the Khazars

Khazars

The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...

. Received with honors, but unable to gain any substantial support there, Nerse moved to Abkhazia

Abkhazia

Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...

 where his family had taken refuge. His office was given by the Caliph to his nephew (sister’s son) Stephen III

Stephen III of Iberia

Stephen III , of the Guaramid dynasty, was a presiding prince of Iberia from 779/780 to 786.Stephen was installed by the Caliph in the place of his maternal uncle Nerse who had revolted against the Arab rule...

. Nerse reconciled with the accomplished fact and, with the Arab permission, returned to Iberia, retiring from politics. By 786, when his Christianized Arab servant, Abo

Abo of Tiflis

Saint Abo of Tiflis or Abo Tbileli is a Christian martyr and the Patron Saint of the city of Tbilisi, Georgia....

, was martyred, Nerse had disappeared from history.