The Arabic title al-Dawla means 'dynasty' or 'state', and appears in many honorific and regnal titles in the Islamic world. Invented in the 10th century for senior statesmen of the Abbasid Caliphate, such titles soon spread throughout the Islamic world and provided the model for a broad variety of similar titles with other elements, such as al-Din.

Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Abu'l-Hayja Abdallah ibn Hamdan al-Taghlibi, more commonly known simply by his honorific of Nasir al-Dawla, was the second Hamdanid ruler of the Emirate of Mosul, encompassing most of the Jazira.