al-Nasir li-Din Allah Ahmad ibn al-Mustadi'

Al-Nasir li-Din Allah Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Mustadi, an Abbasid caliph who ruled between 575 and 622 AH. His mother was a Turkish woman called Zumurrud, and he was born on Monday, the tenth of Rajab 553 AH. ¹

Al-Suyuti says that no one held the caliphate for a longer period than he did, for forty-seven years. He had informants who brought him the news of the kings. He relates from al-Dhahabi that it was said the Nasir was served by the jinn. ¹

Al-Muwaffaq Abd al-Latif says that he revived the dignity of the caliphate, and the khutba was given for him in al-Andalus and China. Ibn Wasil mentions that his conduct towards his subjects was bad and that he leaned towards injustice, and that he was a Shi'i and inclined to the Imami doctrine, unlike his fathers. ¹

In the middle of his rule he occupied himself with transmitting hadith, and gathered a book of seventy hadiths. His sight grew weak in his last years. The approach of the Khwarazm-shah on Baghdad was defeated without a battle, when snow fell on his army at Hamadhan. ¹

Ibn al-Athir says that he remained inactive for the last three years of his life, that one of his eyes went blind, and that he was struck by dysentery for twenty days and died. He describes him as of bad conduct and unjust, and says that Iraq was ruined in his days. He made his concern the shooting of pellets and birds and the trousers of the young men. ²

Ibn al-Athir relates that the Persians attribute to him the encouragement of the Tatars to invade the lands and their correspondence with them. ²

He died on Sunday, the last day of Ramadan 622 AH. ¹