We have already given his biography earlier, and Allah knows best.

After his father’s death he ruled the city of Damascus together with its districts for a time, until his two uncles, al-Kāmil and al-Ashraf, conspired against him (1), wrested the city from his grasp, and compensated him with al-Karak, al-Salt, ʿAjlūn, and Nablus. He soon lost all of these as well and made his way to Iraq, where in 647 AH he entrusted to the caliph al-Mustaʿṣim a deposit valued at (2) one hundred thousand dinars. The caliph repudiated the claim and never returned the money, even though al-Nāṣir visited him repeatedly and sought the mediation of prominent figures.

One of the finest anecdotes about al-Nāṣir Dāwud occurred when he attended a lecture in the Mustanṣiriyya in 633 AH while the caliph himself was present. The jurist Wajīh al-Dīn al-Fazārī (3) rose and recited a poem in praise of the caliph, saying in part:

[from al-Kāmil]
“Had you been present on the Day of the Saqīfa,
you would have been the one preferred, the most devout imam.” (4)

Al-Nāṣir Dāwud replied, “You are mistaken. The Prophet’s uncle al-ʿAbbās—the forefather of the Commander of the Faithful—was present on the Day of the Saqīfa, yet he was not the one preferred, even though he is superior to the Commander of the Faithful. The one who was preferred [and the most devout imam] was Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq.”

The caliph said, “He has spoken the truth,” bestowed a robe of honor upon al-Nāṣir, and banished the poet—Wajīh al-Dīn al-Fazārī—to Egypt, [where he taught in the madrasa of the vizier Ṣafī al-Dīn ibn Shukr].

Al-Nāṣir died in the village of al-Buwayḍā while under guard, and the lord of Damascus (5) attended his funeral.

[Then came the year 657 AH.] The year opened with the Muslims having no caliph. The ruler of Damascus and Aleppo was al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn al-ʿAzīz Muḥammad ibn (6) al-Ẓāhir Ghāzī ibn al-Nāṣir [Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn] (7) [the conqueror of Jerusalem]. Hostility had arisen between him and the Egyptians, who had set up over them [the son of their former master] Nūr al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn al-Muʿizz Aybak al-Turkumānī.