In 1933, after the assassination of Nadir Khan, Mohammed Zahir Shah became king.

Mohammad Zahir Shah in 1963

Mohammad Zahir Shah, Nadir Khan's 19-year-old son, succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973.

Until 1946 Zahir Shah ruled with the assistance of his uncle Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, who held the post of Prime Minister and continued the policies of Nadir Shah.

In 1946, another of Zahir Shah's uncles, Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan, became Prime Minister and began an experiment allowing greater political freedom, but reversed the policy when it went further than he expected.

From 1963 until 1973, Zahir Shah took a more active role.

In 1964, King Zahir Shah promulgated a liberal constitution providing for a bicameral legislature to which the king appointed one-third of the deputies.

Amid charges of corruption and malfeasance against the royal family and poor economic conditions created by the severe 1971 – 72 drought, former Prime Minister Mohammad Sardar Daoud Khan seized power in a non-violent coup on July 17, 1973, while Zahir Shah was receiving treatment for eye problems and therapy for lumbago in Italy.

* 1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.

King Nader Khan was assassinated in 1933 and the throne was left to his 19-year-old son, Zahir Shah, who became the long lasting King of Afghanistan.

When Zahir Shah took power in 1933 Kabul had the only 6 miles of rail in the country, few internal telegraph or phone lines and few roads.

In July 1973, Zahir Shah was ousted in a nonviolent coup and Kabul became the capital of a republic under Mohammed Daoud Khan, the new President.

Conversely, some of the people of Kabul who lived under King Zahir Shah describe the period before the April 1978 Saur Revolution as a sort of golden age.

** Mausoleum of Zahir Shah and Nadir Shah

From Amanullah until the reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah ( 1933 – 1973 ) and Mohammed Daoud Khan ( 1973 – 1978 ) the Jirga was recognized as a common meeting of regional Pashtun leaders.

* 1941 — Called by Mohammed Zahir Shah to approve neutrality in World War II.

* September 1964 — A meeting of 452 called by Mohammed Zahir Shah to approve a new constitution.

** The first was based in Rome around Mohammed Zahir Shah, and it reflected the interests of moderate Pashtuns from Afghanistan.

After the exile of King Zahir Shah in 1973, President Daud Khan forged stronger ties with the Soviets by signing two highly controversial military aid packages for his nation in 1973 and 1975.

Mohammed Zahir Shah ( 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007 ) was the last King ( Padishah ) of Afghanistan, reigning for four decades, from 1933 until he was ousted by a coup in 1973.

Zahir Shah was an ethnic Pashtun who was born on 15 October 1914, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Zahir Shah was educated in a special class for princes at Habibia High School in Kabul.

Zahir Shah served in the government positions of deputy war minister and minister of education.

Zahir attended Habibia High School in Kabul in the early 1960s.

Zahir Shah is seated at the far right during the oath ceremony of Hamid Karzai on 7 December 2004.

On 3 February 2004, Zahir was flown from Kabul to New Delhi, India, for medical treatment after complaining of an intestinal problem.

It supported Hamid Karzai in the 2004 presidential election despite its previous support for the former King Zahir Shah.

Originally six holes, the course opened in 1967 during the reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah, was closed in 1978, and reopened in 2004.

However he was obliged to publicly step aside at the behest of the United States as many of delegates to the Loya Jirga were prepared to vote for Zahir Shah and block the US-backed Hamid Karzai.

Hamid Karzai, a prominent figure from the Popalzai clan, became the president of Afghanistan and Zahir Shah's relatives and supporters were provided with key posts in the transitional government.

A longtime associate of former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah, Shahryar represented the government of Hamid Karzai, who became Afghanistan's new president in the summer of 2002.

History shows that many Afghan rulers were from Kandahar, such as Ahmad Shah Durrani, Abdur Rahman Khan, Nadir Khan, Zahir Shah, Hamid Karzai, etc.

History shows that many Afghan rulers were from Kandahar, such as Ahmed Shah Durrani, Abdur Rahman Khan, Nadir Khan, Zahir Shah, Hamid Karzai etc.

" Hamid Karzai, who sat next to Zahir Shah at the press conference called Zahir Shah the " father of the nation " and thanked him for the " confidence His Majesty has put in me.

The Durrani are the politically dominant Pashtun group in Afghanistan as the current President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is of the Durrani sub-group known as the Popalzai and has close ties to the last king of Afghanistan, Zahir Shah, another member of the Durrani tribe Mohammadzai / Barakzai.

His uncle, Habibullah Karzai, served as representative of Afghanistan at the UN and is said to have accompanied King Zahir Shah in the early 1960s to the United States for a special meeting with U. S. President John F. Kennedy.

At the June, 2002, Loya Jirga to select the Head of State, representatives of the US convinced the former king of Afghanistan, 87-year old Zahir Shah, to withdraw from consideration, even though a majority of Loya Jirga delegates supported him, a move which angered Pashtuns who were concerned with the disproportionate power of the Northern Alliance in the Karzai government.

After King Zahir Shah's exile in 1973, President Daoud Khan made attempts to create a strong Afghan military in the Greater Middle East-South Asia region.

He overthrew the monarchy of his first cousin Mohammed Zahir Shah and declared himself as the first President of Afghanistan from 1973 until his assassination in 1978 as a result of the Saur Revolution led by the Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan ( PDPA ).

Notable guests at the inauguration included the country's former King, Zahir Shah, three former U. S. presidents, and U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

U. S. President Dwight Eisenhower landed at the airport in 1959 where he was greeted by King Zahir Shah and Prime Minister Daoud Khan among many other Afghan officials.

He was a brother of Nadir Khan, who ousted Habibullah Kalakani ( also known as Bacha-ye Saqqow ), and uncle of Zahir Shah, the King of Afghanistan, from 1933 to 1973, and uncle of President Mohammed Daoud Khan.