Nasr was the son of Ahmad ibn Isma'il (r. 907–914), who was assassinated on the night of 23 January 914 by his own guards, due to his favouring Arabic-speaking officials in his court.

Eventually, Ishaq was defeated and surrendered to the general Hamuya ibn Ali, while Abu Salih Mansur died in Nishapur.

[citation needed] Apart from a brief uprising by Ilyas, a son of Ishaq ibn Ahmad, at Ferghana in 922, the Samanid realm would enjoy a decade of peace thereafter.

The Abbasids managed to recover Sistan for the last time, while Ray and Tabaristan were taken by the Zaydi Alid Hasan al-Utrush.

Despite being unable to recover the provinces, the Samanids employed numerous local Dailamite and Gilite leaders and remained active in the power struggles there.

Another Dailamite military leader, Makan ibn Kaki, used this opportunity to seize Tabaristan and Gurgan from the Samanids, and even take possession of Nishapur in western Khurasan.

Muhammad attempted to gain the support of the Abbasid general Yaqut but failed, was defeated by Makan and forced to flee.

Makan, after having heard of Mardavij's assassination at the hands of his own Turkic slaves, immediately left Kirman, secured his appointment as governor of Gurgan from Nasr, and with the support of Samanid troops tried to recover Tabaristan.

[11][12] In the 930s, the Samanid court became the object of persistent conversion efforts by the Isma'ili Shi'a missionary network under Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nasafi.

Traditional accounts are based on the Kitāb al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim and the Siyāsatnāmā of Nizam al-Mulk, but al-Tha'alibi's mirror for princes, the Ādāb al-mulūk, published in 1990, also contains much important information.

[26] Modern scholars consider that Nasr probably remained on his throne until his death on 6 April 943, and that it is very likely that he died as an Isma'ili, but a long illness possibly forced him to withdraw from public affairs earlier than that.

Al-Tha'alibi on the other hand contends that this happened in a private session, and that al-Nasafi's subsequent request for a public debate was denied.

[14][29] Despite the implication of the medieval sources of a systematic anti-Isma'ili purge, this does not appear to have been the case, as several Isma'ili officials—including Ali Zarrad and Abu Mansur al-Shaghani—are attested as serving during Nuh's reign.