Mohammad Zahir Shah (15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for almost 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century.
He expanded Afghanistan's diplomatic relations with many countries, including with both sides of the Cold War. In the 1950s, Zahir Shah began modernizing the country, culminating in the creation of a new constitution and a constitutional monarchy system. Demonstrating nonpartisanism, his long reign was marked by peace in the country which was lost afterwards with the onset of the Afghan conflict.
In 1973, while Zahir Shah was undergoing medical treatment in Italy, his regime was overthrown in a coup d'état by his cousin and former prime minister, Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, who established a single-party republic, ending more than 225 years of continuous monarchical government. He remained in exile near Rome until 2002, returning to Afghanistan after the end of the Taliban government. He was given the title Father of the Nation, which he held until his death in 2007.
Prince Mohammad Zahir Khan was born on 15 October 1914, in a city quarter called Deh Afghanan in Kabul in the Emirate of Afghanistan, into the royal Musahiban family, who belonged to the Mohammadzai clan of the Barakzai tribe of Pashtuns. He was the son of Mohammad Nadir Shah (1883–1933) and Mah Parwar Begum (d. 1941). Nadir was a senior member of the Mohammadzai clan and Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Afghan Army under King Amanullah Khan.
Zahir Khan was educated in a special class for princes at Elementary Primary, built in 1904 by the United Kingdom, and Habibia High School, where many subjects were taught in English. For his secondary education, he went to the Amaniya High School (built during the reign of King Amanullah by France, where many subjects were taught in French. This school was renamed by Nadir Shah as Esteqlal High School) after the fall of King Amanullah. Zahir Khan studied at the Infanterie Military School in the winter (school year in Kabul, 21 March to November). He was then sent to France for further training. He continued his education in France where his father had served as a diplomatic envoy, studying at the Pasteur Institute and the University of Montpellier. 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, later serving in the government positions of deputy war minister and minister of education.
Zahir's father, Mohammad Nadir Shah, was the son of Sardar Mohammad Yusuf Khan. Born in Dehradun, British India, Nadir's family had been exiled after the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Nadir Shah was a descendant of Sardar Sultan Mohammad Khan Telai, half-brother of Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. His grandfather Mohammad Yahya Khan (father in law of Emir Yaqub Khan) was in charge of the negotiations with the British resulting in the Treaty of Gandamak. After the British invasion after the killing of Sir Louis Cavagnari during 1879, Yaqub Khan, Yahya Khan and his sons, Princes Mohammad Yusuf Khan and Mohammad Asef Khan, were taken captive by the British and transferred to the British Raj, where they remained forcibly until the two princes were invited back to Afghanistan by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan during the last year of his reign (1901). During the reign of Amir Habibullah they received the title of Companions of the King (Musahiban). Nadir assumed the throne after the execution of the self-proclaimed ruler of Afghanistan Habibullah Kalakani on 1 November 1929.
Zahir Khan was proclaimed king (shah) on 8 November 1933 at the age of 19, after the assassination of his father Mohammad Nadir Shah. After his ascension to the throne he was given the regnal title, "He who puts his trust in God, follower of the firm religion of Islam". For the first 20 years, he did not effectively rule, instead ceding power to his paternal uncles, Mohammad Hashim Khan and Shah Mahmud Khan, who both served as Prime Ministers. This period fostered a growth in Afghanistan's relations with the international community as during 1934, Afghanistan joined the League of Nations while also receiving formal recognition from the United States. By the end of the 1930s, agreements on foreign assistance and trade had been reached with many countries, most notably with the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Zahir Shah provided aid, weapons, and Afghan fighters to the Uyghur and Kirghiz Muslim rebels, who had established the breakaway Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan. The aid was not capable of saving the East Turkestan republic, as the combined forces were defeated in 1934 by the Kuomintang Chinese Muslim New 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, commanded by General Ma Zhancang at the Battle of Kashgar and Battle of Yarkand. All Afghan volunteers were killed by Chinese Muslim troops, who then abolished the East Turkestan republic, and reestablished Chinese government control over the area.
Despite close relations to the Axis powers, Zahir Shah and his governments refused to take sides during World War II and Afghanistan was one of the few countries in the world which remained neutral. From 1944 to 1947, Afghanistan experienced a series of revolts by various tribes. After the end of World War II, Zahir Shah recognised the need for the modernisation of Afghanistan and recruited a number of foreign advisers to assist with the process. During this period, Afghanistan's first modern university was founded. A number of potential advances and reforms were derailed as a result of factionalism and political infighting. Zahir Shah also requested financial aid from both the United States and the Soviet Union, and Afghanistan was one of few countries in the world to receive aid from both Cold War adversaries. In a 1969 interview, Zahir Shah said that he is "not a capitalist. But I also don't want socialism. I don't want socialism that would bring about the kind of situation [that exists] in Czechoslovakia. I don't want us to become the servants of Russia or China or the servant of any other place."
He was considered a relatively lenient leader compared to previous kings; Zahir Shah had never signed a warrant for the execution of anyone for political reasons during his reign. He also used his power several times to commute capital punishment sentences given to some convicted criminals. At Zahir Shah's behest, a new constitution was promulgated in 1964, which made Afghanistan a modern democratic state by introducing free elections, a parliament, civil and political rights, women's rights, and universal suffrage.
At least five Afghani Pul coins during his reign bore the Arabic title المتوكل على الله محمد ظاهر شاه (AlMutawakkil 'āla Allah Muhammad Dhāhir Shāh), which means "The leaner on God, Mohammad Zahir Shah". The honorific title of "leaner on God" is taken from Quran 8:61.
By the time he returned to Afghanistan in 2002, Zahir Shah's rule was characterized as a lengthy era of peace.
In 1973, while Zahir Shah was abroad in Italy, his cousin Mohammad Daoud Khan staged a coup d'état and established an autocratic republican government. As a former Prime Minister, Daoud Khan had been forced to resign by Zahir Shah a decade earlier and felt that Zahir Shah lacked leadership and that the parliamentary system prevented real progressivism. In August 1973, Zahir Shah sent a letter from Rome to Khan in Kabul declaring his abdication, saying he respected "the will of my compatriots" after realizing the people of Afghanistan "with absolute majority welcomed a Republican regime".
Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for 29 years alongside his wife Queen Humaira Begum and other royal family members. Initially, they lived in a three‐room apartment on Rome's Via Cassia. Relatives of the 1920s King Amanullah Khan, of the same house of Barakzai, also lived in Rome. President Daoud Khan continued to send money to them in Italy consisting of income from property and estates of the former royal family. After the Saur Revolution, the leftist Khalq government cut all funds to Italy.