Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Malik al-Nāṣir Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl(died 1424), numberedal-Nāṣir Aḥmad I,was the eighthRasūlid sultanofYemenfrom 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 fromChina.[4][5]The Chinese admiralZheng HevisitedAdenduring hisfifth, sixth and seventh voyages.On the first of these, according to the anonymousTārikh al-dawla al-Rasūliyya fī l-Yaman,an envoy from the fleet proceeded overland to meet al-Nāṣir inal-Janadin March 1419, bringing with him gifts of porcelain, musk, storax and silk woven with gold.[6]
He received the ten sons ofSa'ad ad-Din IIfrom theSomali Coast,fleeing for the approachingEthiopian Empireat his court, 4 of them being future Adal SultansSabr ad-Din III,Mansur ad-Din of Adal,Jamal ad-Din IIandBadlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din.[7]
After al-Nāṣir's death, the dynasty declined rapidly, losing all power in 1454.[4][5][8]
Footnotes
edit- ^Bosworth 1996,p. 108.
- ^Moorthy Kloss 2024,p. 25.
- ^Smith 1995gives 1401.
- ^abcSmith 1995.
- ^abBosworth 1996,p. 109.
- ^Serjeant 2000,pp. 67–69.
- ^Trimingham, p. 74.
- ^Moorthy Kloss 2024,p. 29.
Works cited
edit- Bosworth, C. E.(1996).The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual.Edinburgh University Press.
- Moorthy Kloss, Magdalena (2024).Unfree Lives: Slaves at the Najahid and Rasulid Courts of Yemen.Brill.
- Ray, Haraprasad (1987). "The Eighth Voyage of the Dragon that Never was: An Enquiry into the Causes of Cessation of Voyages during Early Ming Dynasty".China Report.23(2): 157–178.doi:10.1177/000944558702300202.S2CID155029177.
- Serjeant, R. B. (2000). "Yemeni Merchants and Trade in Yemen: Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries". In Denys Lombard; Jean Aubin (eds.).Asian Merchants and Businessmen in the Indian Ocean and China Sea.Oxford University Press. pp. 53–78.
- Smith, G. R. (1995)."Rasūlids".InBosworth, C. E.;van Donzel, E.;Heinrichs, W. P.&Lecomte, G.(eds.).The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.Volume VIII:Ned–Sam.Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 455–457.ISBN978-90-04-09834-3.