Habibullah Khan (

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

: ; 3 June 1872 – 20 February 1919) was the

Emir of Afghanistan This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first modern Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709. History The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan trib ...

from 1901 until his death in 1919. He was the eldest son of the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, whom he succeeded by right of primogeniture in October 1901. His grandfather was Mohammad Afzal Khan.

Early life

Habibullah was the eldest son of Emir Abdur Rahman, and was born in Samarkand,

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

in 1871. He had a younger brother, born on December 7, 1874, Nasrullah Khan.

Reign

King Habibullah Khan with Afghan military men

Habibullah was a relatively reform-minded ruler who attempted to modernize his country. During his reign he worked to bring modern medicine and other technology to Afghanistan. Many people who were forced into exile by his father were returned to Afghanistan by a general amnesty decreed by Habibullah. In 1903, Habibullah founded the Habibia school as well as a military academy. He also worked to put in place progressive reforms in his country. He instituted various legal reforms and repealed many of the harshest criminal penalties. One of his chief advisers, Abdul Lateef was sentenced to death in 1903 for

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that ...

, being stoned to death in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

. Other reforms included the dismantling of the internal intelligence organization that had been put in place by his father.

Qala-e-Seraj Qala-e-Seraj is a palace located in Mihtarlam, Laghman Province, Afghanistan. It was built by Amir Habibullah Khan c. 1912–13 to spend his winters there. Local officials spent 22 million Afs to rebuild the castle in 2020. Description The cas ...

Mihtarlam Mihtarlam ( fa, مهترلام, ps, مهترلام), also spelled Mehtar Lam, is the sixteenth-largest city of Afghanistan. It is the capital of Laghman Province and center of Mihtarlam District. It is the only large urban settlement in the p ...

was built by the Amir c. 1912–13 to spend his winters.

Khost rebellion

In May 1912, Habibullah faced the only crisis in his career when a rebellion erupted in Khost led by

Jehandad Khan Jehandad Khan (d. 1914) was an Afghan rebel emir who ruled only in Khost. He was born as a member of the Ghilzai tribe, and spent most of his life as a chieftain. After start of the Khost rebellion on 2 May 1912, he briefly laid claim to the A ...

, a rival claimant to the Afghan throne, known as the Khost rebellion. This rebellion ended in August that same year, when the rebels were given concessions by the Afghan government.

World War I

Habibullah maintained the country's neutrality in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, despite strenuous efforts by the

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, it ...

and a German military mission ( Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition) to enlist Afghanistan on its side. He also greatly reduced tensions with

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, signing a treaty of friendship in 1905 and paying an official state visit in 1907. While in India, he was initiated into

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, at Lodge Concordia, No. 3102.

Death

Habibullah was assassinated by a military officer whilst hunting at Kalagosh,

Laghman Province Laghman (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, m ...

on 20 February 1919.https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/asiapacific-region/afghanistan-1919-present/ Habibullah's brother Nasrullah Khan briefly succeeded him as Emir and held power for a week between 21 and 28 February 1919 before being ousted and imprisoned by

Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan ( Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1 ...

, Habibullah's third son.Afghanistan 1919–1928: Sources in the India Office Records
/ref> This occurred a few months before the

Third Anglo-Afghan War The Third Anglo-Afghan War; fa, جنگ سوم افغان-انگلیس), also known as the Third Afghan War, the British-Afghan War of 1919, or in Afghanistan as the War of Independence, began on 6 May 1919 when the Emirate of Afghanistan inv ...

Honours

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

(GCMG) – 1896 * Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) – 1907

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Ancestry.com: Afghan royalty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Habibullah 1872 births 1919 deaths 1919 murders in Afghanistan 20th-century Afghan monarchs 20th-century murdered monarchs 20th-century Afghan politicians Emirs of Afghanistan Barakzai dynasty Pashtun people Afghan secularists Assassinated Afghan politicians Deaths by firearm in Afghanistan People murdered in Afghanistan People from Samarkand Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George 1900s in Afghanistan 1910s in Afghanistan