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Mohammed Zahir Shah (16 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last King (Shah) of Afghanistan reigning for four decades, from 1933 to 1973.

Origins

Zahir Shah was the son of Mohammed Nader Shah, a military officer under former king Amanullah Khan. Nadir Khan assumed the throne after the ouster of Amir Amanullah Khan. Mohammad Nadir, was born in Dehradun, India of Pashtun descent from Peshawar. Zahir's father was a descendant of Colonel Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Khan Telai, the half-brother of Dost Muhammad Khan who sold Peshawar for gold and sided with Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Sarkar Khalsa against his half brother in Kabul, Dost Muhamad. His great grandfather Mohammad Yahya Khan was responsible for the Mediation between Yaqub Khan and the British during the Gandomak Negotiations which is known as the Gandomak Treaty. After the signing of the treaty, Yaqub Khan and Yahya Khan fled to British India.

His Pashtun heritage and his preference of the Persian (Farsi) language gave him credibility with the two most important groups of the country: the Pashto-speaking tribes of the south and the Farsi-speaking elite of Kabul.

Zahir Shah was educated in France at the Pasteur Institute and the University of Montpellier. He led the democratic process and brought back progressive ideas that would be implemented over the course of his reign. He spoke fluent Persian, Pashto, French, English and Italian.

Rule

On 8 November 1933, he was proclaimed king at the age of nineteen after the assassination of his father, Mohammed Nadir Shah, which he witnessed. For the first twenty years he did not effectively rule, ceding power to his paternal uncles. This period fostered a growth in Afghanistan's relations with the international community. In 1934, Afghanistan joined the League of Nations while also receiving a 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.

In 1964, he promulgated a new constitution.

He is also known for being ethnocentric during his rule. Zahir Shah persecuted those whose native tongue was Farsi as well other non-Pashtun groups such as the Hazaras, Nuristanis, Uzbeks, and others. Most government officials and MPs were of Pashtun origin and Pashtuns had more privilege than non-Pashtuns, which resulted in the creation of anti-government movements and parties, for instance, Sitam Milli headed by Tahir Badakhshi, Dr Abdur Rahman Mahmoudi's movement and many more. He instituted programs of political and economic modernization, ushering in a democratic legislature and education for women. These reforms put him at odds with the religious militants who opposed him. He also enacted a program to popularize the Pashtu language which resulted in failure.

By the time he returned to Afghanistan in the twenty-first century, his rule was characterized by a lengthy span of peace, but with no significant progress

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 fight.

Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for twenty-nine years in a large villa in the affluent community of Olgiata on Via Cassia, north of the city of Rome. He was barred from returning to Afghanistan during Soviet-backed Communist rule in the late 1970s.

In 1991, Zahir Shah survived an attempt on his life by a knife-wielding assassin who pretended to be a Portuguese journalist.

During the regime of the Taliban, he remained secluded in exile and refused to speak out against the Taliban. Rather, when the Taliban managed to capture the northern city of Mazari Sharif in 1998, the exiled Zahir Shah sent the Taliban a letter of congratulations.

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 toyed with the idea of becoming president, however he made clear he did not want to return as king: "I will accept the responsibility of head of state if that is what the loya jirga demands of me, but I have no intention to restore the monarchy. I do not care about the title of king. The people call me Baba and I prefer this title." 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, even though he was an ethnocentric king during his reign. 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. Criticisms include his over-zealous attempts to modernize Afghanistan, often putting his policies against traditional values, and his failure to come to a working and stable agreement with neighbouring Pakistan, which also contains a significant Afghan and Pashtun population.

In an October 2002 visit to France, he had 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, the son of a tribal chief from the Popalzai clan, as President of Afghanistan.

In 2005, Zahir Shah reportedly attempted to sell his former palace, which by then was the property of the government 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 (died in 2002 in Rome) on 7 November, 1931 and had issue, six sons and two daughters:

1. HRH Princess Bilqis Begum (1932 - )
2. HRH Prince Muhammed Akbar Khan (10 August 1933 - 26 November 1942)
3. HRH Ahmed Shah Khan, Crown Prince of Afghanistan (23 September 1934 - )
4. HRH Princess Maryam Begum (1936 - )
5. HRH Prince Muhammed Nadir Khan (1941 - )
6. HRH Prince Shah Mahmoud Khan (15 November 1946 - ?? December 2002)
7. HRH Prince Muhammed Daoud Pashtunyar Khan (1949 - )
8. HRH Prince Mir Wais Khan (1957 - )

Although he was fourth in the line of succession, Prince Mir Wais was groomed as his father's heir. Like his father, Mir Wais lived in exile near Rome, and served as his father's closest adviser.

See also

• Reigns of Nadir Shah and Zahir Shah

References

1. A. Rashid, "Kabul", 2002, (LINK) :"... The last time Zahir Shah saw Kabul it was an international diplomatic backwater, but a thriving, bustling town where the elite..."
2. "Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92, Last King of Afghanistan".
3. ^ Barry Bearak, Former King of Afghanistan Dies at 92, The New York Times, July 23, 2007.
4. ^ McCarthy, Michael (2001-09-24). "War On Terrorism: Opposition - Exiled king declares himself ready to return". The Independent (London). Look Smart: Find Articles. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
5. Dupree, Louis: "Afghanistan", pages 477-478. Princeton University Press, 1980
6. Warren, David (2007-07-28). "The death of a king". The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa). The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
7. Mir Ghulam Muhammad Ghobar, P: "Afghanistan dar maseer Tarikh".
8. Indications that RGA may place more emphasis on Pushtu July 13, 1963
9. ^ "Former king of Afghanistan dies", BBC News, July 23, 2007.
10. "The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan".
11. "Last King of Afghanistan dies at 92".
12. "Former Afghanistan King dead".
13. "Afghanistan's King Mohammad Zahir Shah Laid to Rest", Associated Press (Fox News), July 24, 2007.

External links

• Robert Fisk on Zahir Shah: The last king of Afghanistan
• Profile from The Observer
• Genealogy of Mohammed Zahir Shah

Template:Heads of State of Afghanistan since 1919

• 1914 births
• 2007 deaths
• Heads of state of Afghanistan
• Kings of Afghanistan
• World War II political leaders
• Leaders ousted by a coup
• Recipients of the Royal Victorian Chain
• Pashtun people