Nasrullah Khan
Encyclopedia
Nasrullah Khan sometimes spelt as Nasr Ullah Khan, was shahzada
(crown prince) of Afghanistan
and second son of Emir
Abdur Rahman Khan
. He held the throne of Afghanistan as Emir for one week, from February 21 to February 28, 1919.
in 1874, the second of three sons of Abdur Rahman Khan. His brothers were Habibullah Khan and Mohammed Omar Khan. Nasrullah's birth occurred during a period in which his father Abdur Rahman Khan was living in exile in Russian Turkestan
.
On July 22, 1880, Nasrullah's father was recognised as Emir following the end of British occupation of Afghanistan, on the condition that he align Afghanistan's foreign policy with that of Britain. As a consequence of his father's ascension of the throne, Nasrullah (and his elder brother Habibullah) became Shahzada (crown princes) of Afghanistan.
nobles and a group of priests for the observance of religious functions. On May 23 the Shahzada landed at Portsmouth
in England
.
On 27 May 1895 the Shahzada was received by the Queen at Windsor
. During his trip he also visited the Liverpool Overhead Railway
, and went to Ascot
, Glasgow
, and the Elswick Company Gun Range at Blitterlees Banks. He made a gift of £2,500 to Abdullah Quilliam to support the work of the Liverpool Muslim Institute
.
At the time of his visit, the Shahzada was 20 years of age. He reportedly did not speak English well, and did not make a good impression on the local press. A reporter from the Cumberland Pacquet described him as "a stolid, impassive, and greatly bored youth".
On September 3, 1895 he left England for Paris, and from Paris went on to Rome and Naples, and arrived in Karachi on October 16, 1895. He returned to Kabul through Quetta, Chaman and Kandahar. The National Geographic Magazine believed this to be the longest journey ever undertaken by an Afghan.
In 1895, Nasrullah and his brother Habibullah received the Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George
from Queen Victoria in recognition of their services to the British Commonwealth.
.
Prior to his death, Abdur Rahman had sought to totally subdue any sources of opposition to his reign and the stability of Afghanistan with strict laws and restrictions. Among those affected by Abdur Rahman's restrictions was the religious establishment. Upon Abdur Rahman's death, the religious establishment sought to regain its power, and saw in Nasrullah a potential ally. Nasrullah was by this stage deeply religious and had qualified as a Hafiz, or "Repeater of the Qur'an", one who has memorised a substantial portion of the Islamic regligious texts. Throughout his adult life he advocated an Afghan policy strongly aligned with Islamic principles.
Recognising his brother as a potential contender for the throne, Habibullah went to lengths to placate and gain the support of Nasrullah. Upon Habibullah's succession to the throne he named Nasrullah commander-in-chief of the Afghan army, and also gave him the title of President of the State Council. Later in his reign, Habibullah named Nasrullah his heir to the throne in preference to Habibullah's own sons. By contrast, Nasrullah's younger brother Mohammed Omar Jar, and Mohammed's mother the Queen Dowager Bibi Hallima, both of whom were powerful political forces potentially of danger to Habibullah, were kept by Habibullah as "practically state prisoners" confined in private quarters under the guise of protection by a strong detachment of the Imperial Bodyguard (Mohammed Omar Jar having been stripped of his own personal bodyguard - and state positions - by Habibullah in 1904).
The level of influence Nasrullah enjoyed led Angus Hamilton in his 1910 book Afghanistan to describe Habibullah as a "weak-willed" ruler, and the possibility of Nasrullah making an attempt on the throne caused Hamilton to describe him as a "stormy petrel in the Afghan sea of domestic politics".
When Abdul Rahman Khan took the throne of Afghanistan in 1880, he inherited the terms of the 1878 Treaty of Gandamak
, which made Afghanistan a British protectorate. The treaty, amongst other provisions, surrendered control over Afghan foreign relations to the British and allowed for a British mission, with European members, to reside in Kabul. Abdul Rahman Khan was able to alter the terms of the treaty to provide that all members of the British mission be Indian Muslims but was otherwise stuck with the treaty in its entirety.
The Treaty of Gandamak also required that Afghanistan sever its relationships with the independent tribes of the tribal regions of Afghanistan, those lying on the far side of the Durand Line
. These tribes had previously been a substantial source of military power for the Afghanistan throne. When Habibullah became Emir he was pressured by the British government to ratify the Treaty of Gandamak and, although he did so by proclamation in 1905, he would not commit to withdraw Afghan influence from the British side of the Durand Line
, or to sever Afghanistan's relationship with the tribes in that area.
The significance of the tribal areas was that they formed a natural military barrier against the British, who periodically threatened to invade the region to counter Russian advances from the north. Nasrullah Khan actively agitated his brother Habibullah to make use of Afghanistan's influence with the tribes to strengthen Afghanistan's position against the British, and at Nasrullah's urging Hasbibullah continue to pay allowances to the Durand Line tribes despite the Treaty of Gandamak.
At around the same time, during 1904-05, Sir Louis Dane (later governor of the Punjab region of India) attempted to establish a new British mission at Kabul in line with the terms of the Treaty. This was a plan which Nasrullah unsuccessfully opposed.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Young Afghan political movement, headed by journalist Mahmud Tarzi
and Habibullah's son Amanullah
, advocated that Afghanistan enter the war on the German-Turkish side, in direct opposition to Britain. In this they had the support of Nasrullah and the religious factions he represented, who were sympathetic towards the Ottomans because of what they saw as unwarranted infidel aggression towards Islamic states. Despite this, the Emir Habibullah Khan judged Afghanistan too poor and weak to realistically take part in the war, and declared Afghanistan's neutrality, to the frustration of Nasrullah and the Young Afghans.
Nevertheless Nasrullah actively used his political power to assist the German-Turkish efforts. When the Turko-German Niedermayer-Hentig expedition
was welcomed to Kabul in 1915 (despite promises to the Viceroy of India that the expedition would be arrested), Nasrullah provided a friendly ear to the mission after Habibullah reaffirmed Afghanistan's neutrality. Nasrullah was involved in introducing the expedition to journalist Mahmud Tarzi
, whose papers began taking an increasingly anti-British stance. He also continued to entreat the mission to remain in Kabul despite Habibullah's unwillingness to offer them a solid alliance. Finally in 1916 Nasrullah offered to remove Habibullah from power and take charge of the frontier tribes in a campaign against British India, but by then the mission realised such action would be fruitless and declined.
The Turko-German embassy withdrew in 1916, but not before it had convinced Habibullah that Afghanistan was an independent nation which should not remain beholden to the British. Following the closure of the World War, Habibullah petitioned the British for favours resulting from Afghanistan's alleged assistance to the British during the war. These favours included the recognition of Afghanistan's independence and a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference. Britain refused both these requests. Habibullah sought to open further negotiations but before these could progress he was assassinated.
, and Habibullah's commander-in-chief Nadir Khan. On the evening of February 20, 1919, Habibullah was assassinated while in his tent by persons unknown, leaving Nasrullah the heir successor to the Afghan throne.
The remainder of Habibullah's party journeyed south-east to Jalalabad
, and on February 21, 1919 reached that city, whereupon Nasrullah immediately declared himself Emir, supported by Habibullah's first son Inayatullah
.
Upon receiving the news, Amanullah Khan
, third son of Habibullah by Habibullah's first wife, immediately seized control of the treasury at Kabul
and staged a coup. He took control of Kabul
and the central government and imprisoned Nasrullah's supporters. On February 28, 1919, Amanullah proclaimed himself Emir, and on March 3, 1919 Nasrullah was arrested by Amanullah's forces.
On April 13, 1919, Amanullah held a Durbar (a royal court) in Kabul which inquired into the death of Habibullah. It found a colonel in the Afghanistan military guilty of the crime, and had him executed. It also found Nasrullah complicit in the assassination. Nasrullah was sentenced to life imprisonment, and was assassinated approximately one year later while in the royal jail.
Shahzada
Shahzada may refer to:*Shahzada, princely title, crown prince, the son of a shah.*Haji Shahzada , one of the Guantanamo captives whose 2004 CSR Tribunal determined he was not an enemy after all....
(crown prince) of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and second son of Emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan
Abdur Rahman Khan was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901.The third son of Mohammad Afzal Khan, and grandson of Dost Mohammad Khan, Abdur Rahman Khan was considered a strong ruler who re-established the writ of the Afghan government in Kabul after the disarray that followed the second...
. He held the throne of Afghanistan as Emir for one week, from February 21 to February 28, 1919.
Early life
Nasrullah was born at SamarkandSamarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
in 1874, the second of three sons of Abdur Rahman Khan. His brothers were Habibullah Khan and Mohammed Omar Khan. Nasrullah's birth occurred during a period in which his father Abdur Rahman Khan was living in exile in Russian Turkestan
Russian Turkestan
Russian Turkestan was the western part of Turkestan within the Russian Empire , comprising the oasis region to the south of the Kazakh steppes, but not the protectorates of the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva.-History:-Establishment:Although Russia had been pushing south into the...
.
On July 22, 1880, Nasrullah's father was recognised as Emir following the end of British occupation of Afghanistan, on the condition that he align Afghanistan's foreign policy with that of Britain. As a consequence of his father's ascension of the throne, Nasrullah (and his elder brother Habibullah) became Shahzada (crown princes) of Afghanistan.
Visit to England
In 1895 the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan had intended to undertake a state visit to England to pay his respects to the ageing Queen Victoria. However, his health prevented him from making the trip, and so he instead sent his son the Shahzada Nasrullah Khan. Nasrullah departed Bombay on April 29, 1895, with an entourage of over 90 dignitaries, including "five or six" high-ranking AfghanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
nobles and a group of priests for the observance of religious functions. On May 23 the Shahzada landed at Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
On 27 May 1895 the Shahzada was received by the Queen at Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. During his trip he also visited the Liverpool Overhead Railway
Liverpool Overhead Railway
The Liverpool Overhead Railway was the world's first electrically operated overhead railway. The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking, onto which the tracks were laid. It ran close to the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, following the line of Liverpool Docks...
, and went to Ascot
Ascot Racecourse
Ascot Racecourse is a famous English racecourse, located in the small town of Ascot, Berkshire, used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 9 of the UK's 32 annual Group 1 races...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, and the Elswick Company Gun Range at Blitterlees Banks. He made a gift of £2,500 to Abdullah Quilliam to support the work of the Liverpool Muslim Institute
Liverpool Muslim Institute
The Liverpool Muslim Institute was founded by the Liverpudlian William Abdullah Quilliam in 1887.After proclaiming himself to be a Muslim, William Henry Quilliam changed his name to Abdullah and founded the Liverpool Muslim Institute with Mrs Elizabeth Cates. Within two years they had set up a...
.
At the time of his visit, the Shahzada was 20 years of age. He reportedly did not speak English well, and did not make a good impression on the local press. A reporter from the Cumberland Pacquet described him as "a stolid, impassive, and greatly bored youth".
On September 3, 1895 he left England for Paris, and from Paris went on to Rome and Naples, and arrived in Karachi on October 16, 1895. He returned to Kabul through Quetta, Chaman and Kandahar. The National Geographic Magazine believed this to be the longest journey ever undertaken by an Afghan.
In 1895, Nasrullah and his brother Habibullah received the Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
from Queen Victoria in recognition of their services to the British Commonwealth.
During Habibullah's reign
On October 3, 1901 Nasrullah's father Abdur Rahman died, aged 57, and Nasrullah's brother Habibullah peacefully ascended the throne of Afghanistan by right of primogeniturePrimogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
.
Prior to his death, Abdur Rahman had sought to totally subdue any sources of opposition to his reign and the stability of Afghanistan with strict laws and restrictions. Among those affected by Abdur Rahman's restrictions was the religious establishment. Upon Abdur Rahman's death, the religious establishment sought to regain its power, and saw in Nasrullah a potential ally. Nasrullah was by this stage deeply religious and had qualified as a Hafiz, or "Repeater of the Qur'an", one who has memorised a substantial portion of the Islamic regligious texts. Throughout his adult life he advocated an Afghan policy strongly aligned with Islamic principles.
Recognising his brother as a potential contender for the throne, Habibullah went to lengths to placate and gain the support of Nasrullah. Upon Habibullah's succession to the throne he named Nasrullah commander-in-chief of the Afghan army, and also gave him the title of President of the State Council. Later in his reign, Habibullah named Nasrullah his heir to the throne in preference to Habibullah's own sons. By contrast, Nasrullah's younger brother Mohammed Omar Jar, and Mohammed's mother the Queen Dowager Bibi Hallima, both of whom were powerful political forces potentially of danger to Habibullah, were kept by Habibullah as "practically state prisoners" confined in private quarters under the guise of protection by a strong detachment of the Imperial Bodyguard (Mohammed Omar Jar having been stripped of his own personal bodyguard - and state positions - by Habibullah in 1904).
The level of influence Nasrullah enjoyed led Angus Hamilton in his 1910 book Afghanistan to describe Habibullah as a "weak-willed" ruler, and the possibility of Nasrullah making an attempt on the throne caused Hamilton to describe him as a "stormy petrel in the Afghan sea of domestic politics".
Anti-British policy
Despite his earlier trip to England, Nasrullah demonstrated little sympathy for British foreign policy towards Afghanistan.When Abdul Rahman Khan took the throne of Afghanistan in 1880, he inherited the terms of the 1878 Treaty of Gandamak
Treaty of Gandamak
The Treaty of Gandamak officially ended the first phase of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Afghanistan ceded various frontier areas to Britain to prevent invasion of further areas of the country....
, which made Afghanistan a British protectorate. The treaty, amongst other provisions, surrendered control over Afghan foreign relations to the British and allowed for a British mission, with European members, to reside in Kabul. Abdul Rahman Khan was able to alter the terms of the treaty to provide that all members of the British mission be Indian Muslims but was otherwise stuck with the treaty in its entirety.
The Treaty of Gandamak also required that Afghanistan sever its relationships with the independent tribes of the tribal regions of Afghanistan, those lying on the far side of the Durand Line
Durand Line
The Durand Line refers to the porous international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns . This poorly marked line is approximately long...
. These tribes had previously been a substantial source of military power for the Afghanistan throne. When Habibullah became Emir he was pressured by the British government to ratify the Treaty of Gandamak and, although he did so by proclamation in 1905, he would not commit to withdraw Afghan influence from the British side of the Durand Line
Durand Line
The Durand Line refers to the porous international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has divided the ethnic Pashtuns . This poorly marked line is approximately long...
, or to sever Afghanistan's relationship with the tribes in that area.
The significance of the tribal areas was that they formed a natural military barrier against the British, who periodically threatened to invade the region to counter Russian advances from the north. Nasrullah Khan actively agitated his brother Habibullah to make use of Afghanistan's influence with the tribes to strengthen Afghanistan's position against the British, and at Nasrullah's urging Hasbibullah continue to pay allowances to the Durand Line tribes despite the Treaty of Gandamak.
At around the same time, during 1904-05, Sir Louis Dane (later governor of the Punjab region of India) attempted to establish a new British mission at Kabul in line with the terms of the Treaty. This was a plan which Nasrullah unsuccessfully opposed.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the Young Afghan political movement, headed by journalist Mahmud Tarzi
Mahmud Tarzi
Mahmūd Bēg Tarzī was one of Afghanistan's greatest intellectuals. He is known as the father of Afghan journalism...
and Habibullah's son Amanullah
Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan was the King of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change...
, advocated that Afghanistan enter the war on the German-Turkish side, in direct opposition to Britain. In this they had the support of Nasrullah and the religious factions he represented, who were sympathetic towards the Ottomans because of what they saw as unwarranted infidel aggression towards Islamic states. Despite this, the Emir Habibullah Khan judged Afghanistan too poor and weak to realistically take part in the war, and declared Afghanistan's neutrality, to the frustration of Nasrullah and the Young Afghans.
Nevertheless Nasrullah actively used his political power to assist the German-Turkish efforts. When the Turko-German Niedermayer-Hentig expedition
Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition
The Niedermayer-Hentig Expedition was a diplomatic mission sent by the Central Powers to Afghanistan in 1915-1916. The purpose was to encourage Afghanistan to declare full independence from the United Kingdom, enter World War I on the side of the Central Powers, and attack India. The expedition was...
was welcomed to Kabul in 1915 (despite promises to the Viceroy of India that the expedition would be arrested), Nasrullah provided a friendly ear to the mission after Habibullah reaffirmed Afghanistan's neutrality. Nasrullah was involved in introducing the expedition to journalist Mahmud Tarzi
Mahmud Tarzi
Mahmūd Bēg Tarzī was one of Afghanistan's greatest intellectuals. He is known as the father of Afghan journalism...
, whose papers began taking an increasingly anti-British stance. He also continued to entreat the mission to remain in Kabul despite Habibullah's unwillingness to offer them a solid alliance. Finally in 1916 Nasrullah offered to remove Habibullah from power and take charge of the frontier tribes in a campaign against British India, but by then the mission realised such action would be fruitless and declined.
The Turko-German embassy withdrew in 1916, but not before it had convinced Habibullah that Afghanistan was an independent nation which should not remain beholden to the British. Following the closure of the World War, Habibullah petitioned the British for favours resulting from Afghanistan's alleged assistance to the British during the war. These favours included the recognition of Afghanistan's independence and a seat at the Versailles Peace Conference. Britain refused both these requests. Habibullah sought to open further negotiations but before these could progress he was assassinated.
Succession and death
In February 1919, Emir Habibullah Khan went on a hunting trip to Afghanistan's Laghman Province. Among those in his retinue were Nasrullah Khan, Habibullah's first son InayatullahInayatullah Khan
Inayatullah Khan Seraj was the King of Afghanistan from 14 January 1929 to 17 January 1929. He was the son of former Afghan King, Habibullah Khan...
, and Habibullah's commander-in-chief Nadir Khan. On the evening of February 20, 1919, Habibullah was assassinated while in his tent by persons unknown, leaving Nasrullah the heir successor to the Afghan throne.
The remainder of Habibullah's party journeyed south-east to Jalalabad
Jalalabad
Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...
, and on February 21, 1919 reached that city, whereupon Nasrullah immediately declared himself Emir, supported by Habibullah's first son Inayatullah
Inayatullah Khan
Inayatullah Khan Seraj was the King of Afghanistan from 14 January 1929 to 17 January 1929. He was the son of former Afghan King, Habibullah Khan...
.
Upon receiving the news, Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan
Amanullah Khan was the King of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change...
, third son of Habibullah by Habibullah's first wife, immediately seized control of the treasury at Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and staged a coup. He took control of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and the central government and imprisoned Nasrullah's supporters. On February 28, 1919, Amanullah proclaimed himself Emir, and on March 3, 1919 Nasrullah was arrested by Amanullah's forces.
On April 13, 1919, Amanullah held a Durbar (a royal court) in Kabul which inquired into the death of Habibullah. It found a colonel in the Afghanistan military guilty of the crime, and had him executed. It also found Nasrullah complicit in the assassination. Nasrullah was sentenced to life imprisonment, and was assassinated approximately one year later while in the royal jail.