1914 -
King of Afghanistan, 1933 - 1973.
Born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, Zahir attended Habibia and Istiqlal schools (1920 - 1924), then accompanied his father, Mohammad Nadir Khan, to France, where he continued his studies. Zahir's father was the second eldest and most influential of five Musahiban brothers, members of the Muhammadzai royal clan of the Barakzai Pashtun tribe, who enjoyed considerable power in court during the 1910s and 1920s. During the turbulent rule of the modernizing King Amanullah Barakzai (1919 - 1929), the Musahiban brothers fell into dis-favor. In 1929, when popular rebellions forced Amanullah's abdication, followed by a nine-month interregnum of rule by a rural Tajik, Amir Habibullah, Zahir's father returned to eastern Afghanistan from France. With assistance from the British in India, Pashtun tribesmen, and religious leaders, Nadir Khan claimed the Afghan throne, declaring himself Muhammad Nadir Shah on 15 October 1929 - thereby establishing the Musahiban dynasty.
Zahir returned to Kabul in October 1930 and attended the Infantry Officers School for one year. In 1931, he married the daughter of Ahmad Shah, a court minister. The only surviving son of Nadir Shah, Crown Prince Zahir at age seventeen was appointed assistant war minister (1932), then minister of education (1933). On 8 November 1933, following the assassination of his father, he was proclaimed King Mohammad Zahir Shah, with the religious title al-Mutawakkil ala Allah (he who puts his faith in Allah). To ensure the continuation of Musahiban rule, his accession to the throne was un-opposed by his three surviving uncles. For the next thirty years, Zahir Shah simply reigned while two of his strong-willed and autocratic uncles held actual power as prime ministers - Sardar (Prince) Muhammad Hashim Khan (1933 - 1947) and Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan (1947 - 1953), followed by Zahir Shah's cousin and brother-in-law, the dictatorial prime minister Sardar Muhammad Daud (1953 - 1963). During this period, although Afghanistan was officially a constitutional monarchy, power and decision making were monopolized by a few elder members of the Musahiban oligarchy; they maintained family unity through intermarriage, assuring continuation of their rule by stifling liberal expression and political freedoms with an oppressive police state.
Following a rift with Daud and his resignation as prime minister, Zahir Shah took power into his own hands in 1963 by appointing a nonrelative as prime minister. He then launched his program of Demokrasy-i Now (New Democracy) - a period of experimentation with democratic liberalization that lasted for a decade. During this decade, he encouraged the development of a new liberal constitution, supported relatively free elections, extended freedom of the press, and tolerated the formation of many political movements with diverse orientations. Indecisiveness and inaction on the passage of legislation governing political parties and his inability to prevent government interference by family members and friends undermined the democratic experiments. In 1973, while receiving medical treatment in Europe, Zahir Shah was overthrown in a military coup led by his paternal cousin (and sister's husband), Daud. Zahir Shah remained in foreign exile in Italy with his family, and Daud established a republic.
Zahir Shah is considered a mild-mannered, soft-spoken kindly gentleman who lacks energy and is devoid of initiative. He abdicated his throne and passively watched the people's struggles opposing Soviet occupation, communist rule, and civil strife that began in Afghanistan in 1978. Zahir Shah's written statement welcoming the initial fall of Mazar-e Sharif to Taliban in 1997 deeply saddened the peoples of northern Afghanistan. However, some of his former associates and officials also living in exile advocate his return to Afghanistan and possible restoration of the monarchy especially after the fall of the Marxist regime in 1992 and again after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. One of Zahir Shah's delegates to the Bonne Conference (December 2001), Hamid Karzai, was appointed chairperson of the interim post-Taliban government. %
In April 2002 he ended his exile in Rome and returned to his palace in Kabul, renouncing all claims to the throne. The emergency Loya Jerga of June 2002, which he officially opened, gave him the title of "Father of the Nation." His title was reaf-firmed by the Constitutional Loya Jerga of December 2003.
Bibliography
Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Shahrani, M. Nazif. "State Building and Social Fragmentation in Afghanistan: A Historical Perspective." In The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, edited by Ali Banuazizi and Myron Weiner. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1986.
— M. NAZIF SHAHRANI
UPDATED BY ERIC HOOGLUND
