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  By
Afghanland.com:
King of Afghanistan 1929-33.
Born in 1883.
Died 1933
Mohammad Nadir chose military as his
carrier. He commanded the government forces against the
Mangals in 1912. He was awarded the title General for his
services. He was appointed Commander-in-chief in 1914. He
commanded the Afghan troops in Paktia in third Anglo-Afghan
War 1n 1919. He was appointed Minister of War in 1919. Due to
policy differences with King Amanullah, Nadir Khan was
appointed Afghan minister to Paris in 1924. After King
Amanullah was overthrown by Bacha-e Saqao, Nadir Khan returned
to Afghanistan via India with his brothers Shah Wali Khan and
Shah Mahmud Khan. He amassed tribal troops and attacked Kabul.
After initial setbacks, his brother Shah Wali Khan finally
managed to capture Kabul in October of 1929. Two days later,
Nadir Khan was proclaimed Afghanistan's King. He fought those
who favored the return of King Amanullah. He executed Ghulam
Nabi, a supporter of King Amanullah. .
The new ruler
quickly abolished most of Amanullah's reforms, but despite his
efforts to rebuild an army that had just been engaged in
suppressing a rebellion, the forces remained weak while the
religious and tribal leaders grew strong. In 1930, there were
uprisings by the Shinwari Pushtuns as well as by another Tajik
leader. The same year, a Soviet force crossed the border in
pursuit of an Uzbek leader whose forces had been harassing the
Soviets from his sanctuary in Afghanistan. He was driven back
to the Soviet side by the Afghan army in April 1930, and by
the end of 1931 most uprisings had been subdued.
Nadir Shah named a
ten-member cabinet, consisting mostly of members of his
family, and in September 1930 he called into session a loya
jirga of 286 which confirmed his accession to the throne. In
1931 the king promulgated a new constitution. Despite its
appearance as a constitutional monarchy, the document
officially instituted a royal oligarchy, and popular
participation was merely an illusion.
Although Nadir
Shah placated religious factions with a constitutional
emphasis on orthodox denominational principles, he also took
steps to modernize Afghanistan in material ways, although far
less obtrusively than his cousin Amanullah. He improved road
construction, especially the Great North Road through the
Hindu Kush, an d
methods of communication. He forged commercial links with the
same foreign powers that Amanullah had established diplomatic
relations with in the 1920s, and, under the leadership of
several prominent entrepreneurs, he initiated a banking system
and long-range economic planning. Although his efforts to
improve the army did not bear fruit immediately, by the time
of his death in 1933 Nadir Shah had created a 40,000-strong
force from almost no national army at all. It is notable that
Afghanistan's regeneration was carried out with no external
assistance whatsoever.
During his reign, Nadir Khan reopened
many schools. He established faculty of Medicine, which later
became Kabul University with the addition of a few more
faculties.
Nadir Shah's brief
four year reign ended violently, but he nevertheless
accomplished a feat of which his great-great-uncle, Dost
Mohammad, would have been proud: he reunited a fragmented
Afghanistan. Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1933 by a young
man whose family had been feuding with the king since his
accession to power.
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