Al-Nasir Ahmad ibn Isma'il

Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Malik al-Nāṣir Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl (died 1424), numbered al-Nāṣir Aḥmad I, was the eighth Rasūlid sultan of Yemen from 1400 until his death.[1][2][3] He succeeded his father, al-Ashraf Ismāʿīl I, and was succeeded by his son, al-Manṣūr ʿAbdallāh.[4]

Al-Nāṣir Aḥmad was the last successful Rasūlid, attaining military victories in Yemen and receiving diplomatic gifts from China.[4][5] The Chinese admiral Zheng He visited Aden during his fifth, sixth and seventh voyages. On the first of these, according to the anonymous Tārikh al-dawla al-Rasūliyya fī l-Yaman, an envoy from the fleet proceeded overland to meet al-Nāṣir in al-Janad [ar] in March 1419, bringing with him gifts of porcelain, musk, storax and silk woven with gold.[6]

After al-Nāṣir's death, the dynasty declined rapidly, losing all power in 1454.[4][5][7]

  1. ^ Bosworth 1996, p. 108.
  2. ^ Moorthy Kloss 2024, p. 25.
  3. ^ Smith 1995 gives 1401.
  4. ^ a b c Smith 1995.
  5. ^ a b Bosworth 1996, p. 109.
  6. ^ Serjeant 2000, pp. 67–69.
  7. ^ Moorthy Kloss 2024, p. 29.