Naṣīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd was the son of Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf Yazdī, and was born in Avadh in the present-day Indian province of Uttar Pradesh (Qalandar, 282; Abū al-Faḍl, 3/172; Jamālī, 92; Ghulām Sarwar, 1/353). Although the sources contemporary to him do not mention the date of his birth, it is clear that he was born around 675/1276 during the reign of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Balban (r. 664–686/1266–1287) (Dīn Kalīm, 110; Nizami, Life and Times, 22; Rizvi, History of Sufism, 1/184; Zarrīnkūb, 221). His family, who were descendants of the Prophet Muḥa…