Nasir al-Dawla ibn Hamdan was a descendant of the Hamdanid dynasty who became a general of the Fatimid Caliphate and served as governor of Damascus from 1041-1048, succeeding Anushtakin ad-Dizbari. He played a leading role in the civil war of 1067–73 between the Fatimids' Turkish and Nubian troops as the leader of the former. In this struggle, he requested the assistance of the Seljuks and even tried to abolish the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir and restore allegiance to the Abbasids.