Inayatullah Khan (

Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...

Dari Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...

: ), (20 October 1888 – 12 August 1946) was the King of Afghanistan for three days in January 1929. He was the son of former Afghan

Emir Emir (; ' (), also Romanization of Arabic, transliterated as amir, is a word of Arabic language, Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocratic, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person po ...

, Habibullah Khan. Inayatullah's brief reign ended with his

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

. Khan was born into a Pashtun family. In the middle of the night, on 14 January 1929,

Amanullah Khan Ghazi (warrior), Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 26 April 1960) was the head of state, sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emirate of Afghanistan, Emir and after 1926 as Kingdom of Afghanistan, King, until his abdic ...

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

Kabul Kabul 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. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...

. 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 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 17 January 1929. Inayatullah was airlifted out of Kabul by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

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

Afghan Civil War (1928–1929) The Afghan Civil War of 1928–1929 was fought from 14 November 1928 to 13 October 1929. Rebelling, and subsequently governing Saqqawists, Saqqawist (''Saqāwīhā'') forces under Habibullāh Kalakāni fought against various opposing tribes and r ...

, 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 (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, until his death in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

in 1946.

Family

Inayatullah married Khariya (Khariya, a daughter of Mahmud Tarzi) in October 1910 had Khalilullah Seraj (born 1910), Ruhullah Seraj (born 1911, died 1913), Zaynab Seraj, Mastura Seraj, Humaira Seraj, Hamidullah Enayat Seraj (born 1917), 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-royal-stub