Nasr ibn Mahmud


Naṣr ibn Maḥmūd ibn Naṣr ibn Ṣaliḥ ibn Mirdās was the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo in 1075–1076.

Life

Nasr was the eldest son of Mahmud ibn Nasr, the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo. Nasr’s mother was a daughter of the Buyid emir al-Malik al-Aziz ibn Jalal al-Dawla. His younger brothers, from a different mother, were Sabiq, Waththab and Shabib and sister Mani’a.
Mahmud designated his youngest son Shabib as his successor, but upon Mahmud’s death in early 1075, Nasr was recognized as Aleppo’s emir. According to historian Thierry Bianquis, Nasr “showed himself to be more peaceful and more generous than his father”. His Turkmen forces commanded by Ahmad Shah captured Manbij from the Byzantines in September/October 1075. Nasr lost Rafaniyya that same year to the Turkish rulers of Damascus, but Ahmad Shah restored Mirdasid control of the city.
On 8 May 1075, the day of Eid al-Fitr, Nasr became intoxicated and imprisoned Ahmad Shah. He proceeded to attack Ahmad’s Turkmen troops in their base at al-Hadir, on the outskirts of Aleppo. During the fighting, Nasr was killed by a Turkmen archer’s arrow. Afterward, an emir of the Banu Munqidh arranged for Sabiq to succeed Nasr. Sabiq’s succession was actively opposed by Waththab, Shabib and much of the Banu Kilab, the tribe to which the Mirdasids belonged; they supported Waththab’s bid for the emirate.