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] He succeeded his father, al-Ashraf Ismāʿīl I, and was succeeded by his son, al-Manṣūr ʿAbdallāh.
Al-Nāṣir Aḥmad was the last successful Rasūlid, attaining military victories in Yemen and receiving diplomatic gifts from China. 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 in March 1419, bringing with him gifts of porcelain, musk, storax and silk woven with gold.
He received the ten sons of Sa'ad ad-Din II from the Somali Coast, fleeing for the approaching Ethiopian Empire at his court, 4 of them being future Adal Sultans Sabr ad-Din III,Mansur ad-Din of Adal, Jamal ad-Din II and Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din.[2]
After al-Nāṣir's death, the dynasty declined rapidly, losing all power in 1454.