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19 - Afghanistan from 1919

from PART II - INDEPENDENCE AND REVIVAL C. 1919 TO THE PRESENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2011

By
Nazif Shahrani
Edited by
Francis Robinson
Francis Robinson
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London; Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies
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Summary

The drive for independence and failed modernisation

The 1920s were marked by dramatic changes in leadership and policy. Amān Allāh, the third son of the assassinated Amīr Ḥabīb Allāh, challenged his uncle, Crown Prince Naṣr Allāh, for the throne. After seizing power (1919), he arrested Naṣr Allāh and some high officials, including General Muḥammad Nādir of the Muṣāḥibān family, on suspicion of involvement in the assassination. Naṣr Allāh died in jail, but members of the Muṣāḥibān family were quickly proclaimed innocent and given important government posts.

Amān Allāh had been raised in the tranquil palace surroundings with secular schooling and the nationalist sentiments and modernist outlook of his mentor, father-in-law and close adviser, Maḥmūd Ṭarzī. Unlike his predecessors, who claimed that God had chosen them to lead, he credited the ‘honorable nation of Afghanistan’ for putting the crown of the kingdom on his head.

Following a brief war (1919) he gained control of Afghanistan’s foreign affairs, hence independence, from British India. This bold act earned Amān Allāh the title of ghāzī (Muslim victor/hero), provided him with much-needed legitimacy and made him enormously popular within Afghanistan (however briefly) and beyond. He consolidated his power by promising salary rises to the army and creating state–clergy alliances. Once securely on the throne, Ghāzī Amīr Amān Allāh swapped his title of Amīr for Shāh Amān Allāh (King Amān-Allāh) and began to undertake sweeping but ill-fated legal, administrative, social and cultural reforms.

Type
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Information
The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 542 - 557
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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