Everything about Zahir Shah totally explained
Mohammed Zahir Shah (
16 October 1914 –
23 July 2007) was the last King (
Shah) of
Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973. Following his return from exile he was given the title "Father of the Nation" in 2002 which he held until his death.
Family background and early life
Zahir Shah was born in
Kabul the son of
Mohammed Nadir Shah, a senior member of the
Barakzai royal family and commander in chief of the army under former king
Amanullah Khan. Nadir Shah assumed the throne after the execution of
Habibullah Ghazi in October, 1929. Mohammed Zahir's father was born in
Dehradun, his family having been exiled after the
second Anglo-Afghan war. Nadir Shah was a descendant of Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Khan Telai, half-brother of
Dost Mohammad Khan. His great grandfather Mohammad Yahya Khan was responsible for the mediation between Yaqub Khan and the British leading to the
Gandamak Treaty. After the British invasion following the killing of Sir Louis Cavagnari in 1879,
Yaqub Khan and Yahya Khan were seized by the British and transferred under custody to India, where they forcibly remained until invited back to Afghanistan by Amir Abdur Rahman in the last year of his reign (1901).
Zahir Shah was educated at the Habibia school in Kabul in a special class for princes. When he returned to Afghanistan he helped his father and uncles restore order and reassert government control during a period of lawlessness in the country. He was later enrolled at an Infantry School and appointed a privy counsellor. Zahir Shah served in the government positions of deputy war minister and minister of education.
His preference of the Persian language gave him credibility with the most important group of the country: the elite citizenry of
Kabul.
Rule
Zahir Khan was proclaimed King (Shah) on
8 November 1933, after the assassination of his father
Mohammed Nadir Shah. Following his ascension to the throne he was given the regnal title
"confident in God, follower of the firm religion of Islam". For the first thirty years he didn't effectively rule, ceding power to his paternal uncles,
Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan and
Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan. This period fostered a growth in Afghanistan's relations with the international community as in 1934, Afghanistan joined the
League of Nations while also receiving formal recognition from the
United States. Throughout the 1930s, agreements on foreign assistance and trade had been reached with many countries, most notably Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Following the end of the
Second World War, Zahir Shah recognised the need for the
modernisation of Afghanistan and recruited a number of foreign advisers to assist with the process. During his reign a number of potential advances and reforms were derailed as a result of
factionalism and political infighting.
Zahir Shah was able to govern on his own in 1963
Exile
In 1973, while Mohammed Zahir Shah was in Italy undergoing eye surgery as well as therapy for
lumbago, his cousin and former Prime Minister
Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a
coup d'état and established a republican government. As a former prime minister, Daoud Khan had been fired by Zahir Shah a decade earlier. In the August following this coup, Zahir Shah abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.
Zahir Shah lived in
exile in
Italy for twenty-nine years in a modest four-bedroom
villa He was barred from returning to Afghanistan during Soviet-backed Communist rule in the late 1970s. In 1983 during the
Soviet war in Afghanistan, Zahir Shah was cautiously involved in plans to head a government in exile. Ultimately these plans failed because he couldn't reach a consensus with the powerful Islamist factions.
On his return to Afghanistan in 2002, he vowed not to challenge
Hamid Karzai for the presidency.
Return
In April 2002, while the country was under American occupation, he returned to
Afghanistan to open the
Loya jirga, which met in June 2002. After the fall of the Taliban, there were open calls for a return to the monarchy. Zahir Shah himself let it be known that he'd accept what ever responsibility was placed on him by the Loya Jirga. He was given the ceremonial title "Father of the Nation" in the current
Constitution of Afghanistan symbolizing his role in Afghanistan's history as a nonpolitical symbol of national unity. The title of the 'Father of the Nation' dissolved with his death.
Hamid Karzai, a prominent figure from the Popalzai clan, became the president of Afghanistan and Zahir Shah's relatives and supporters were handed key posts in the transitional government. He moved back into his old palace, but the Loya Jirga refused to give him the throne. In an October 2002 visit to France, he'd slipped in a bathroom, bruising his ribs, but on
21 June 2003, while in
France for a medical check-up, he broke his
femur by slipping in a
bathroom.
On
3 February 2004, Shah was flown from Kabul to
New Delhi,
India, for medical treatment after complaining of an
intestinal problem. He was hospitalized for two weeks and remained in New Delhi under observation. On
18 May 2004, he was brought to a hospital in the
United Arab Emirates because of nose bleeding caused by heat.
Zahir Shah attended the
7 December 2004 swearing in of
Hamid Karzai as President of Afghanistan.
In his final years, he was frail and required a microphone pinned to his collar so that his faint voice could be heard. In January 2007, Shah was reported to be seriously ill and bedridden. On
23 July,
2007, he died in the compound of the presidential palace in Kabul after prolonged illness. His death was announced on national television by President Karzai. His funeral was held on
July 24. It began on the premises of the presidential palace, where political figures and dignitaries paid their respects; his coffin was then taken to a mosque before being moved to his tomb on Maranjan Hill.
Family
He married
Homairah Begum (1918-2002) on
7 November,
1931 and had six sons and two daughters:
- Princess Bilqis Begum (born 17 April 1932)
- Crown Prince Muhammed Akbar Khan (4 August 1933 - 26 November 1942)
- Crown Prince Ahmad Shah (born 23 September 1934)
- Princess Maryam Begum (born 2 November, 1936)
- Prince Muhammed Nadir Khan (born 21 May, 1941)
- Prince Shah Mahmoud Khan (15 November 1946 - 7 December, 2002)
- Prince Muhammed Daoud Pashtunyar Khan (born 14 April, 1949)
- Prince Mir Wais Khan (born 7 January, 1957)
Further Information
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