Inayatullah 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 ...

: ), (20 October 1888 – 12 August 1946) was the

King 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 ...

for three days in January 1929. He was the son of former Afghan

Emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...

Habibullah Khan Habibullah Khan (Pashto/ Dari: ; 3 June 1872 – 20 February 1919) was the Emir of Afghanistan 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 190 ...

. Inayatullah's brief reign ended with his

abdication Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority. Abdications have played various roles in the succession procedures of monarchies. While some cultures have viewed abdication as an extreme abandonment of duty, in other societ ...

. In the middle of the night, on 14 January 1929,

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 ...

handed over his kingship to his brother Inayatullah Khan and tried to secretly escape from

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 #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

Kandahar Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...

. Habibullāh Kalakāni and his followers chased Amanullah's

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

on horseback but Amanullah managed to escape. With the King gone, Kalakani wrote a letter to King Inayatullah to either surrender or prepare for war. Inayatullah's response was that he had never sought nor wished to be king and agreed to abdicate and proclaim Kalakani as king on 18 January 1929. Inayatullah was airlifted out of Kabul by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and spent the remainder of his life in exile. In August 1929, during the

Afghan civil war of 1928–29 Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...

, there were rumours in Kabul that rupees bearing Inayatullah's name were circulating among anti-Kalakani forces. This led some to believe that Inaytullah had begun to contest the Afghan throne. However, nothing came of this, and the rumours quickly subsided. Inayatullah remained in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, until his death in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

in 1946.

Family

Inayatullah and Khariya (Khariya, a daughter of

Mahmud Tarzi Mahmud Tarzi ( ps, محمود طرزۍ, Dari: محمود بیگ طرزی; August 23, 1865 – November 22, 1933) was an Afghan politician and intellectual. He is known as the father of Afghan journalism. He became a key figure in the history of ...

) had Khalilullah Seraj (born 1910), Ruhullah Seraj (born 1911, died 1913), Zaynab Seraj, Mastura Seraj, Humaira Seraj, Hamidullah Enayat Seraj (born c.1923), Roqya Seraj (born 1918), Hamida Seraj (born 1920), Khayrullah Enayat Seraj (born 1921), Esmatullah Enayat Seraj (born 1922), Latifa Seraj (born 1923), Anisa Seraj (born 1924), Nafisa Seraj (born 1925).

References

External links

* 1888 births 1946 deaths 20th-century Afghan monarchs Kings of Afghanistan Barakzai dynasty Pashtun people 1929 in Afghanistan 20th-century Afghan politicians Monarchs who abdicated Afghan expatriates in Iran Afghan Civil War (1928–1929) {{afghanistan-bio-stub