Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T20:59:51.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.

4 Adamec, L. W., Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs to the Mid-Twentieth Century (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1974), p. 139.Google Scholar

5 Ghobār, , Afghanistan along the Highway, p. 804.Google Scholar

6 Adamec, , Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs, p. 163.Google Scholar

7 Kākar, H., ‘Trends in Modern Afghan History,’ in Dupree, L. and Albert, L., eds., Afghanistan in the 1970s (New York: Praeger, 1974), p. 30.Google Scholar

8 Fraser-Tytler (British Minister, Kabul), to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 1940, Political (External) Dept., Coll. 3/2, 2, Review of Political Tendencies in Afghanistan in 1939, p. 3. India Office Library and Public Record Office, London (hereafter IOL).

9 Afghanistan, Annual Reports, 1939–1947, Political (External) Dept. L/P and S/12/1572, Coil. 3/21, 2, P.S. IOL.

10 Fraser-Tytier (Kabul), to Viscount Halifax, 19 Jan. 1939, External, Coll. 3/21, Annual Reports from 1920 to 1928, Enclo. Rpt. 1938, p. 21. IOL.

11 Kākar, , ‘Trends in Modem Afghan History,’ op. cit., pp. 13–33.Google Scholar

12 Two extensive studies in English on Afghanistan in the reign of King Amān Allāh have recently appeared: Poullada, L., Reform and Rebellion in Afghanistan, 1919–1929 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973);Google ScholarSteward, R. T., Fire in Afghanistan, 1914–1929 (New York: Doubleday, 1973).Google Scholar

13 Fraser-Tytler (Kabul), to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 1940, Political (External) Dept. Coll. 3/25 1, Review of Political Tendencies in Afghanistan in 1939, p. 3. IOL.

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.

15 Magnus, R., ‘The Constitution of 1964: A Decade of Political Experimentation’, in Dupree and Albert, Afghanistan in the 1970s, pp. 50–75.Google Scholar

16 Dupree, L., Afghanistan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973);Google ScholarGriffiths, J. C., Afghanistan (London: Pall Mall Press, 1967);Google ScholarMagnus, , ‘The Constitution of 1964: A Decade of Political Experimentation,’ op. cit.Google Scholar

17 Dupree, , Afghanistan, p. 753.Google Scholar

18 Dupree, , ‘A Note on Afghanistan: 1971,’ American Universities Field Staff Reports (hereafter AUFS Reports), Vol. XV, no. I, p. 16.Google Scholar

19 Griffiths, , Afghanistan, p. 88.Google Scholar

20 Griffiths, , Afghanistan, p. 7.Google Scholar

21 Dupree, , ‘A Note on Afghanistan: 1971’, AUFS Reports, Vol. XV, no. 2, p. 32.Google Scholar

22 Brant, M., ‘Recent Economic Development,’ in Dupree and Albert, Afghanistan in the 1970s, p. 104.Google Scholar

23 Griffiths, , Afghanistan, p. 91.Google Scholar

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

26 Dupree, , ‘A Note on Afghanistan: 1971,’ p. 22.Google Scholar

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.