Ahmad was born in
Balkh, he was the son of Nizam al-Mulk, and a Georgian princess, who was the niece or daughter of
Bagrat III of Georgia. During the lifetime of his father, Ahmad lived in
Hamadan and
Isfahan, and continued to do so in a few years after his father's death. In 1106/1107, he went to the court of
Sultan Muhammad I to file a complaint against the
rais (head) of
Hamadan. When Ahmad arrived to the court, Muhammad I appointed him as his vizier, replacing Sa'd al-Mulk Abu'l-Mahasen Abi who had been recently executed on suspicion of heresy. The appointment was due mainly to the reputation of his Ahmad's father. He was then given various titles which his father held (Qewam al-din, Sadr al-Islam and Nizam al-Mulk). Ahmad was vizier for four years in which he in 1107/1108 accompanied Sultan Muhammad I during his campaign in
Iraq, where his army managed to defeat and kill the
Mazyadid ruler Sayf al-dawla Sadaqa ibn Mansur, who bore the title "king of the Arabs". In 1109, Muhammad I sent Ahmad and Chavli Saqavu to capture the
Ismaili fortresses of
Alamut and Ostavand, but they failed to achieve any decisive result and withdrew. In 1110, an Ismaili attempted to assassinate Ahmad in a mosque at
Baghdad, but failed to do so. Ahmad was shortly replaced by Khatir al-Mulk Abu Mansur Maybudi as vizier of the Sejluq Empire. According to
Ali ibn al-Athir, Ahmad then retired to a private life in
Baghdad, but according to
Anushirvan ibn Khalid, Muhammad I had Ahmad imprisoned for ten years. In 1122, the son of Muhammad I,
Mahmud II was ruling as the Sultan of the Seljuq Empire, with another son of Nizam al-Mulk, Shams al-Mulk Uthman, as his vizier. During the same year, the Abbasid caliph
al-Mustarshid deposed and imprisoned his vizier Amid al-dawla Jalal al-Din Hasan ibn Ali. Mahmud II then imposed Ahmad as al-Mustarshid's vizier. Ahmad later fought against the Mazyadid
Dubays ibn Sadaqa. Ahmad also fortified the walls around
Baghdad. One year later, Mahmud II removed Shams al-Mulk Uthman as his vizier, and had him executed. The Abbasid caliph then used this opportunity to get rid of Ahmad as his vizier. Ahmad then retired to a school founded by his father, the
Nizamiyya of Baghdad, where he lived the last 25 years of his life, dying in 1149/1150. ==See also==