Shihab ad-Din Ahmad

An-Nasir Shihab ad-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun, better known as an-Nasir Ahmad, was the Bahri Mamluk sultan of Egypt, ruling from January to June 1342. A son of Sultan an-Nasir Muhammad, he became embroiled in the volatile succession process following his father's death in 1341. An-Nasir Ahmad lived much of his life in the desert fortress of al-Karak in Transjordan and was reluctant to assume the sultanate in Cairo, preferring al-Karak, where he was closely allied with the inhabitants of the city and the Bedouin tribes in its vicinity. His Syrian partisans, emirs Tashtamur and Qutlubugha al-Fakhri, successfully maneuvered to bring Syria under an-Nasir Ahmad's official control, while sympathetic emirs in Egypt were able to oust the Mamluk strongman Emir Qawsun and his puppet sultan, the five-year-old half-brother of an-Nasir Ahmad, al-Ashraf Kujuk. An-Nasir Ahmad eventually assumed the sultanate after frequently delaying his departure to Egypt.