Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Mohammed Zahir Shah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) |
| Mohammed Zahir Shah |
|
|---|---|
| King of Afghanistan | |
 |
|
| Reign | 8 November 1933 - 17 July 1973 |
| Born | 16 October 1914 |
| Kabul, Afghanistan | |
| Died | July 23, 2007 (aged 92) |
| Kabul, Afghanistan | |
| Buried | Maranjan Hill |
| Predecessor | Mohammed Nadir Shah |
| Successor | Monarchy abolished Mohammed Daoud Khan as President of Afghanistan |
| Consort | Humaira Begum (deceased 2002) |
| Royal House | Barakzai |
| Father | Mohammed Nadir Shah |
| Mother | Mah Parwar Begum |
Mohammed Zahir Shah (16 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last King (Shah) of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 to 1973.
Contents |
Zahir Shah was the son of Mohammed Nadir Shah, a military officer under former king Amanullah Khan. Nadir Shah assumed the throne after he had Habibullah Ghazi executed. Mohammed Zahir's father was born in Dehradun, India descending from a Pashtun family from Peshawar, India. Nadir Shah was a descendant of Colonel Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Khan Telai, the half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan. 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.
Zahir Shah was sent to be educated in France at the Pasteur Institute and the University of Montpellier.[1] He spoke fluent Persian, and some French, English and Italian.[2]
His preference of the Persian language gave him credibility with the most important group of the country: the Persian-speaking elite of Kabul.[3]
On 8 November 1933, he was proclaimed king at the age of nineteen after the assassination of his father, Mohammed Nadir Shah. For the first twenty years he did not effectively rule, ceding power to his paternal uncles.[4] 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.[5]
In 1964, Zahir Shah promulgated a new constitution. 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 conservative clerics who opposed him.[6]
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[4]
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.[4] In the August following this coup, Zahir Shah abdicated rather than risk an all-out civil war.[4]
Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for twenty-nine years in a villa in the affluent community of Olgiata[2] 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.[4]
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.[7]
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.[4] 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."[4] He was given the ceremonial title "Father of the Nation" in the current Constitution of Afghanistan[8] 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.[9]
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 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.[4] 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.[4] 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.[10]
He married Homairah Begum (1918-2002) on 7 November 1931 and had issue, six sons and two daughters:[11]
- 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)
- ^ Mohammad Zahir Shah, 92, Last King of Afghanistan.
- ^ a b McCarthy, Michael. "War On Terrorism: Opposition - Exiled king declares himself ready to return", The Independent (London), Look Smart: Find Articles, 2001-09-24. Retrieved on 2007-07-23.
- ^ 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..."
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Barry Bearak, Former King of Afghanistan Dies at 92, The New York Times, July 23, 2007.
- ^ Dupree, Louis: "Afghanistan", pages 477-478. Princeton University Press, 1980
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Former king of Afghanistan dies", BBC News, July 23, 2007.
- ^ The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
- ^ "The late King was always fondly referred to by all Afghans, cutting across ethnic boundaries, as "Baba-e-Millat" or 'Father of the Nation', a position given to him in the country's Constitution passed in January 2004, about two years after the collapse of Taliban rule. The title of the 'Father of the Nation' dissolves with his death." Last King of Afghanistan dies at 92.
- ^ "Afghanistan's King Mohammad Zahir Shah Laid to Rest", Associated Press (Fox News), July 24, 2007.
- ^ Royal Ark
- Robert Fisk on Zahir Shah: The last king of Afghanistan
- Profile from The Observer
- Genealogy of Mohammed Zahir Shah
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mohammed Nadir Shah |
King of Afghanistan 1933 — 1973 |
Succeeded by Mohammed Daoud Khan as President of Afghanistan |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Monarchy abolished | — TITULAR — King of Afghanistan 1973 — 2007 |
Succeeded by Crown Prince Ahmad Shah |
