Abdur Rahman Khan also known by his epithets, The Iron Amir, was Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for perpetrating the Hazara Genocide, but also uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Agreement with British India.
The Durrani Empire, colloquially known as the Afghan Empire, or the Sadozai Kingdom, was an Afghan empire founded by the Durrani tribe of Pashtuns under Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747, which spanned parts of Central Asia, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian subcontinent. At its peak, it ruled over present-day Afghanistan, much of Pakistan, parts of northeastern and southeastern Iran, eastern Turkmenistan, and northwestern India. Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani Empire is considered to be among the most significant Islamic empire of the second half of the 18th century.
European influence in Afghanistan has been present in the country since the Victorian era, when the competing imperial powers of Britain and Russia contested for control over Afghanistan as part of the Great Game.
Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payinda Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1799 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.
The Second Anglo-Afghan War was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty, the son of former Emir Dost Mohammad Khan. The war was part of the Great Game between the British and Russian empires.
Ghazi Amanullah Khan was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, Afghanistan was able to relinquish its protected state status to proclaim independence and pursue an independent foreign policy free from the influence of the United Kingdom.
Ghazi Mohammad Ayub Khan also known as the Victor of Maiwand or the Afghan Prince Charlie was, for a while, the governor of Herat Province in the Emirate of Afghanistan. He was briefly the Emir of Afghanistan, from 12 October 1879 to 31 May 1880. He also led the Afghan troops during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and defeated the British Indian Army at the Battle of Maiwand. Following his defeat at the Battle of Kandahar, Ayub Khan was deposed and exiled to British India. However, Ayub Khan fled to Persia. After negotiations in 1888 with Sir Mortimer Durand, the United Kingdom's ambassador at Tehran, Ayub Khan became a pensioner of the British Raj and traveled to British India in 1888, where he lived in Lahore, Punjab, until his death in 1914. He was buried in Peshawar and had eleven wives, fifteen sons, and ten daughters. Two of his grandsons, Sardar Hissam Mahmud el-Effendi and Sardar Muhammad Ismail Khan, served as brigadiers in the Pakistan Army.
Mohammadzai, also spelled Moḥammadzay, is a Pashtun sub-tribe or clan of the Barakzai which is part of the Durrani confederacy of tribes. They are primarily centered on Kandahar, Kabul and Ghazni in Afghanistan as well as in the city of Charsadda in neighbouring Pakistan. The Mohammadzai ruled Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978, for a total of 155 years. Their rule ended under Daoud Khan when the Communists took power via a Soviet-backed coup.
Soraya Tarzi was Queen of Afghanistan as the wife of King Amanullah Khan. As Queen, she became one of the most influential women in the world at the time. She played a major part in the modernization reforms of Amanullah Khan, particularly regarding the emancipation of women.
Sardar Abdullah Khan Tarzi was a twentieth century Afghan Statesman from Kandahar province in Afghanistan. As a country "elder," he participated in the national Loya Jirga, specifically the one in 1964 that was called by Mohammed Zahir Shah, which acted as a constitutional convention. In and out of office, he was always a key decision maker, as he was a tribal and Pashtun leader in southern Afghanistan.
Alakozai is a Pashtun tribe in Afghanistan. They are one of the four tribes of the Zirak tribal confederacy of Durrani Pashtuns.
The Barakzai dynasty, also known as the Muhammadzai dynasty, ruled what is now Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978, when the monarchy ended de jure under Musahiban Mohammad Zahir Shah and de facto under his cousin Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan. The Barakzai dynasty was established by Dost Mohammad Khan after the Durrani dynasty of Ahmad Shah Durrani was removed from power. As the Pahlavi era in Iran, the Muhammadzai era was known for its progressivist modernity, practice of Sufism, peaceful security and neutrality, in which Afghanistan was referred to as the "Switzerland of Asia".
Khwaja Haji Dost Muhammad Qandhari was an Afghan Sufi master in the Naqshbandi tradition in the 19th century (1801–1868).
Bārakzai is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. According to the Encyclopædia Iranica, "In the detailed Pashtun genealogies there are no fewer than seven instances of the ethnic name Bārakzī, at very different levels of tribal segmentation. Six of them designate simple lineages within six different tribes located in the Solaymān mountains or adjacent lands... The seventh instance, on the other hand, designates one of the most important Pashtun tribes in numbers and historic role, part of the Zīrak branch of the Dorrānay confederation.
Mahmud Tarzi was an Afghan politician and intellectual. He is known as the father of Afghan journalism. He became a key figure in the history of Afghanistan, following the lead of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey by working for modernization and secularization, and strongly opposing religious extremism and obscurantism. Tarzi emulated the Young Turks coalition.
Sultan Mohammad Khan, also known as Ghazi Sardar Sultan Mohammad Talaei, and known by his epithet, Sultan Mohammad Khan the Golden was an Afghan chief minister and regent. He was a powerful half-brother of Emir Dost Mohammad Khan, the eventual ruler of Afghanistan who seized control of Kabul from him. Prior to and during the reign of Dost Mohammad Khan, Sultan Muhammad Khan Telai was chief minister and governor of various regions of Afghanistan, including Kabul, Peshawar and Kohat. He was the first of the Musahiban, a Mohammadzai dynasty that began with him and ruled Afghanistan for more than 150 years, in various forms such as emir, king or president from 1823 to 1978.
The Afghan Civil War was fought from 9 June 1863 to January 1869. It began as a result of Dost Mohammad Khan's death on 9 June 1863 and the subsequent power struggles among his sons. Dost Mohammad consolidated his power in the second half of his reign within his inner family. His sons were appointed governors of provinces and effectively acted autonomous from the central government. This would inevitably lead to his sons fighting for control after his death.
The Conquest of Kandahar took place on 14 November 1855, and its consolidation lasted as long as September 1856. Following the death of Kohandil Khan, the ruler of Kandahar under the Dil brothers, the region had fallen into a succession crisis between Rahmdil Khan, the brother of Kohandil, and Kohandil's sons, who wished to gain power for themselves. Dost Mohammad Khan, the ruler of the Emirate of Afghanistan, sought to take advantage of the anarchy and chaos, and conquer Kandahar for himself.
The Shaghasi are, alongside the Seraj and Telai, a prominent and powerful cadet-branch of the Afghan royal family. They belong to the Zirak branch of the Durrani confederacy, and are primarily centered around Kandahar. They can also be found in other provinces throughout central Afghanistan.
Sardar Abdul Wahab Khan belonged to the Mohammadzai tribe of Kandahar. He was the son of Sardar Mir Afzal Khan, brother of General Abdur Rahim Khan and great-grandson of Sardar Painda Khan. He is also a second cousin of Amir Sher Ali Khan. When Abdur Rahman Khan was invited by the British to become the new Amir after the defeat of Ayub Khan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War, Abdul Wahab Khan lived in exile for many years in Persia then in British India before returning to Kabul with his son, Sardar Abdul Habib Khan in 1903.
