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.

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.

In Kabul, Kashgar representatives met the newly-proclaimed King of Afghanistan Mohammad Zahir Shah and Prime Minister Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan, asking for aid and a supply of arms.

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.

Both agreed to work together with the exiled Afghan king Zahir Shah.

* June 14 – Ahmad Zahir, Afghan singer and composer ( b. 1946 )

He lived in Pakistan as among the Afghan refugees, where he worked to reinstate former Afghan King Zahir Shah.

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.

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.

Lloyd Webber has one son, David ( born 1992, Hammersmith, London ) from his marriage to Zohra Mahmoud Ghazi, a great niece of the Afghan King Zahir Shah.

However, the Soviets were close to King Zahir Shah and his cousin Daoud Khan-the first Afghan President-and it could have damaged their relations.

Nearly 77, Zahir Shah had been overthrown in 1973, and he and his family were stripped of their Afghan citizenship after the Communist revolution of 1978.

As King Mohammed Zahir Shah tried to reinforce his goal of pan-Afghan unity, the station's name was changed in 1953 to the Afghan Broadcasting System, and again in 1960 to Radio Afghanistan.

– Abdul Zahir ( Afghan Prime Minister )

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

Ma Zhancang's Chinese Muslim army defeated the Turkic Uighur and Kirghiz army, and the Afghan volunteers sent by king Mohammed Zahir Shah, and exterminated them all.

The Zahir professionally was on the scene of Afghan Music for only 10 years at the most ; however, Zahir managed to record more than 30 albums.

The title went dormant after his assassination in 1842 until 1926 when Amanullah Khan resurrected it ( official from 1937 ) and was finally laid to rest with the abdication of Mohammed Zahir Shah in 1973 following a coup ; at other times the Afghan monarchy used the style Emir ( Amir al-Momenin ) or Malik (" King ").

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

Others alumni include astronaut Story Musgrave, Olympic champion Jenny Thompson ( twelve medals, including eight gold medals ), former Afghan prime minister Abdul Zahir, and mayor of the City of Rancho Cucamonga, California ( 2006 –) Don Kurth.

Mohammad Hashim Maiwandwal (-b: 1919 d: 1973 ) was an Afghan politician during the reign of Zahir Shah.

This force included a small number of Afghan volunteers sent by king Mohammed Zahir Shah and who served as body guards of emir Abdullah.

* Abdul Zahir ( Afghan Prime Minister ) ( 1910 – 1983 ), former prime minister of Afghanistan

In 2002, Afghanistan, the SSG contributed to security and personal protection of the Afghan king, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returning from exile in Italy.

The Afghan Air Force was established in 1924 under the rule of King Amanullah Khan and upgraded by King Zahir Shah in the 1960s.