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The Fall of the Afghan Monarchy in 1973

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Ḥasan Kākar
Ḥasan Kākar
Affiliation:
Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University
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Extract

Afghanistan proceeded along the road of constitutional monarchy for a decade from 1963 to 1973 in the reign of King Muḥammad Ẓāhir (1933–1973) much as it had during the reign of King Amān Allāh (1919–1929). In the 1950s, parliamentary democracy was also practiced for a brief period. But these experiments failed, and the reigning monarchs were forced into exile in Italy. In 1973, Afghanistan was proclaimed a republic. This article examines why, in the last period, the constitutional system of government, as well as the well-established Afghan monarchy, collapsed.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 1978 , pp. 195 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 Ferrier, J. P., History of the Afghans (London: J. Murray, 1858), p. 302.Google Scholar

2 For details see my Ph.D. dissertation, ‘Afghanistan in the Reign of Amīr ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Khān, 1880–1901,’ London University, 1974;Google Scholar a revised version of it is due to be published by the University of Texas Press at Austin under a new title, Government and Society in Afghanistan in the Reign of Amir ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Khān 1880–1901; also, my Afghanistan: A Study in Internal Political Developments: 1880–1896 (Lahore, 1971).Google Scholar

3 MirGhobār, G. M., Afghanistan Dar Masir-i-Tarikh (Afghanistan along the Highway of History) (Kabul: Government Press, 1967), p. 184.Google Scholar The book is banned in Afghanistan, but one Xerox copy of it is available at Widener (Harvard), and one at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

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14 The Republic of Afghanistan: Statements, Messages, and Press Interviews of the National Leader and the Founder of the Republic, 17 July 1973–1917 July 1974, published by the Ministry of Information and Culture, Kabul, no. 26 (Dari), pp. 5–10.

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24 Dupree, , Afghanistan, p. 510.Google Scholar

25 For the modernization of the army during the Dā'ūd decade, see Hurewitz, J. C., Middle East Politics: The Military Dimension (New York: Praeger, 1970), pp. 296–307.Google Scholar

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27 The New York Times, 1 Aug., 1973, p. 13.

28 Dupree, ‘A Note on Afghanistan: 1974,’ AUFS Reports, Vol. XVIII, no. 8, p. 4.

29 Ibid.

30 Republic of Afghanistan: Statements, Messages, and Press Interviews, no. I, p. 2.

31 Dupree, , ‘A Note on Afghanistan: 1974,’ p. 2.Google Scholar

32 Republic of Afghanistan: Statements, Messages, and Press Interviews, no. I, p. 2.