Afghanistan was born in the mid-18th century led by Ahmad Shah Abdali (1747-1772) (also known as Ahmad Shah Durrani), who conquered the Indian capital of New Delhi and seized parts of the Indian subcontinent.
Modern Afghanistan witnessed a geopolitical competition between British and Soviet interests, and fought 3 wars later known as the "Anglo-Afghan Wars":
The First War: from 1839 to 1842.
The Second War: from 1878 to 1880.
The third war: It was briefly in 1919.
Afghanistan became a "buffer state" between the British and Russian empires during the reign of Prince Abdul Rahman Khan (1880-1901), who managed to extend his control over the entire Afghan soil and put down the internal revolutions.
Over the past century, Afghanistan has suffered from domestic and international conflicts that have shaken its stability and cohesion.
Afghan historian Habibullah Rafia tells Al Jazeera Net that during the era of Prince Amanullah Khan and King Muhammad Zahir Shah, Afghanistan was a unified state, and after the king's period it suffered from constant tension due to the Soviet and American occupation.
During more than 100 years, 15 rulers of Afghanistan succeeded each other, between a king and a president, and the following is a list of their names and short biographies about them:
1- Prince Amanullah Khan (1919-1928)
He ruled Afghanistan after the death of his father, Prince Habibullah Khan, took power in 1919, and declared his country's independence from Britain after coming to power after the First World War.
He worked on the development and modernization of Afghanistan through steps, including:
Railroad construction.
Import the printing machine.
Establishing the country's first constitution.
He called for personal freedom and equality among the Afghan people.
Britain could not bear the "reform steps" of Prince Amanullah Khan, who aspired to become a model and a source of inspiration for all the countries occupied by Britain, according to what he told Al Jazeera Net, the Afghan writer and historian Abdul Ghafoor Liwal.
The recognition of the Khan government by the Soviet Union also angered Britain, which was unwilling to lose its political influence in Afghanistan and the region.
Amanullah Khan was forced to abdicate after ruling for 9 years, and his brother Enayatullah Khan took power for only 3 days. He died on April 25, 1960.
2- Habibullah Khan (1928-1929)
Habibullah Kalakani became the ruler of Afghanistan at the end of 1928 and the beginning of 1929. He came to power through force, and no country recognized his government, and his supporters described him as a "servant of the religion of the Messenger of God", but his opponents described him as a rebel.
Habibullah Khan was only able to rule Afghanistan for 9 months, until Nader Khan, who was a minister in the government of Prince Amanullah Khan's father, overthrew the government of Habibullah Khan with the help of the southern tribes.
Habibullah Khan fled to his hometown in Parwan, north of the capital, Kabul, and later surrendered and was executed with some of his friends.
3- Muhammad Nader Shah (1929-1933)
Muhammad Nader Shah was born on April 9, 1883, joined the army at the age of 29 and participated in the war against the British.
He is nicknamed "The Savior of Afghanistan", and he became its king on October 15, 1929.
He implemented part of the "reforms" and regulations initiated by Prince Amanullah Khan, handed over the courts to scholars, and obligated women to wear the veil, and during his reign a regular army was established and the first university and medical college were established.
Muhammad Nader Shah recognized the constitutional monarchy in Afghanistan, and in 1931 established the first state bank.
Muhammad Nader Shah was killed on November 8, 1933 by a student named Abdul Khaliq, during a ceremony to distribute awards and certificates to students.
4- King Muhammad Zahir Shah (1933-1973)
The last king of Afghanistan, he took power on November 8, 1933, at the age of 19 after his father, King Muhammad Nader Shah, was assassinated.
Muhammad Zahir Shah was born on October 16, 1914 in the capital, Kabul, and completed his studies in France.
His reign in the 1950s and 1960s was a time of unprecedented economic boom for Afghanistan, strongly supporting and encouraging education and ordering the construction of schools across the country.
During his reign, many airports were built, such as Kabul International Airport and Kandahar International Airport.
His rule ended in 1973 with a bloodless coup by his cousin, Muhammad Daoud Khan.
Muhammad Daoud Khan came to power through a bloodless coup (social networking sites)
5- Muhammad Daoud Khan (1973-1978)
Daoud Khan came to power in 1973 through a bloodless coup against his cousin Muhammad Zahir Shah, established a republican regime and declared himself the first republican president of Afghanistan.
Daoud ruled the country for 5 years, and was strict, and his reign witnessed economic growth, as he worked on reforming laws and developing the country's foreign relations.
However, his change of attitude towards the Soviet Union and his position on the issue of "Pashtunistan" (the border problem with Pakistan) increased the number of his opponents.
Daoud Khan and 18 members of his family were killed in a coup by the Communist Party on April 28, 1978, and his remains were found after 30 years, during the government of former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
The Afghan Ministry of Health said that he was identified from dental molds and a small golden Qur’an gifted to him by the Saudi king, and on March 17, 2009 Karzai held a presidential funeral for him and was buried again south of the capital, Kabul.
6- Nour Muhammad Turki (1979-1980)
Nur Muhammad Turki was born on July 14, 1917 in the Nawah district of Ghazni province in central Afghanistan. He graduated from Kabul University, and began his political activity as a journalist, and wrote a number of novels and short stories.
He was one of the founding members of the People's Democratic Party, and was its general secretary from 1965 to 1979.
He came to power in 1979 after the coup led by his comrade Hafizullah Amin. He became the first communist president of Afghanistan. His rule was only one year. He was killed in mysterious circumstances, and Hafeezullah Amin assumed power after him.
7- Hafeez Allah is Amin
Hafizullah Amin was born on August 1, 1929 in the Paghman district of the capital, Kabul. He is the second president of Afghanistan during the communist era.
Amin received his primary education in Paghman and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Kabul, then went to the United States and obtained his master's and doctorate degrees in education.
During his stay in the United States, he became the president of the Afghan Student Union, and after his return he ran for parliamentary elections but failed.
He applied for membership in the People's Democratic Party, and was able to attract the attention of Nur Muhammad Turki, who was the leader of the party and was appointed as a member of the Central Committee and then became responsible for the military wing.
Hafizullah Amin - the icon of the "coup" of April 1979 - became deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the first communist government.
After the death of Noor Muhammad Turki, Hafizullah Amin became president of Afghanistan for only 100 days.
In the fall of 1979 the KGB obtained information that Afghan President Hafizullah Amin was planning to negotiate with the United States and the leader of the Islamic Party to form an interim government.
The Soviet Union decided to get rid of Hafizullah Amin, against the background of accusing him of working with American intelligence, and he was killed in a special military operation in his home west of the capital, Kabul, and Babrak Karmel was installed as the third president of Afghanistan while he was outside the country.
Babrak Karmel (centre) is the third president of Afghanistan (social networking sites)
8- Babrak Karmel (1979-1985)
Babrak Karmel is the third president of Afghanistan, and at the time was a leader of the People's Democratic Party.
Carmel greatly relaxed the harsh policies of the party and government, and for the first time proposed national participation in government institutions, and largely implemented them.
Carmel came to power with the support of the former Soviet Union, after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.
He was unpopular with the majority of Afghans and his "reforms" did not reduce the insurgency in the country.
Muhammad Najibullah, the last communist president of Afghanistan (social networking sites)
9- Muhammad Najibullah (1985-1992)
Muhammad Najibullah was born on August 6, 1947, he was an Afghan doctor and politician. He graduated from Kabul University in 1970 and worked as head of the Afghan intelligence service for 5 years. He is the fourth and last prime minister of the communist government in Afghanistan.
He took power in 1985, and after the collapse of his government, he resorted to the United Nations office in Kabul and remained there until September 26, 1996, and was executed by the Taliban after its fighters entered the capital, Kabul.
10- God Painted Me Renewed (1992)
Sabbaght Allah Mujadidi was born in 1925 in Kabul. In 1948 he went to Cairo to study and met the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Hudaybi. He was expelled from Egypt on charges of involvement in the assassination plan of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Imprisoned in Afghanistan for 4 and a half years, then released, and in 1971 Saudi Arabia sent him to Denmark to lead the Copenhagen Mosque and head the National Center for Scandinavia, and Saudi Arabia granted him citizenship.
After the collapse of Najibullah's government, he was appointed in 1992 and became the ninth president of the Republic of Afghanistan for only two months.
On June 28, 1992, Mojadadi's term as interim head of what was known as the "Mujahideen Government" ended after two months, and was replaced by Burhanuddin Rabbani.
11- Burhanuddin Rabbani (1992-1996)
Burhanuddin Rabbani was born in 1940 in the province of Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan. He completed his primary studies in his hometown, and secondary studies in the capital, Kabul. Then, in 1968, he went to Egypt and joined Al-Azhar University.
Rabbani founded the Jamiat-e-Islami party in 1971 and his party experienced many ups and downs during the civil war years.
He was appointed in 1992 as President of Afghanistan for a period of 6 months in order to prepare for the holding of general elections and the selection of a new president for the country, but he refused to step down and became embroiled in the civil war with his rival, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, until the Taliban militants reached the doorstep of the capital, Kabul.
Burhanuddin Rabbani left for northern Afghanistan and led the armed opposition against the Taliban, and was assassinated in a bombing of his home in Kabul on September 20, 2011.
12- Mullah Muhammad Omar (1996-2001)
The leader and founder of the Taliban movement, born in 1959 in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, ruled the country between 1996 and 2001 before the US invasion in 2001.
Mullah Omar was one of the most wanted men in the United States of America, and he died in April 2013 in mysterious circumstances, and the Taliban confirmed on July 30, 2015 his death without specifying the date or place of his burial.
Hamid Karzai, the first president to rule Afghanistan for the longest term (Anadolu Agency)
13- Hamid Karzai (2001-2014)
Hamid Karzai was born on December 24, 1957 in Kandahar province into a political family from the Bublezi tribe, and both his father and grandfather served in the government of King Muhammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.
Under the weight of the Afghan war in the 1980s, the Karzai family was forced to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan, before he went to study in India, where he received his university education, obtaining a master's degree in political science in 1982.
After the US invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Karzai returned to Afghanistan and was chosen by the "Loya Jirga" (the tribal council) meeting as head of a transitional administration for a period of 6 months, and after that he was chosen as an interim president for two years in June 2002, by Loya Jirga".
In 2004, he ran for the presidential elections and won two consecutive terms and continued in power for 13 years. Karzai is the first president - after the late King Muhammad Zahir - to rule Afghanistan for the longest period.
Muhammad Ashraf Ghani fled to the UAE in August 2021 after the Taliban took control of Kabul (social networking sites)
14- Muhammad Ashraf Ghani (2014-2021)
Muhammad Ashraf Ghani was born in 1949 in Logar state, south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He completed primary and secondary education at Habiba School in Kabul.
He traveled to Lebanon and joined the American University of Beirut, and obtained his BA in 1973, then returned to Afghanistan in 1977 and worked as a professor at Kabul University.
On September 21, 2014, Ashraf Ghani was elected president in a controversial election, and he remained in power until August 15, 2021, the date Taliban militants entered the capital, Kabul, after which he fled to the United Arab Emirates and settled there.
Hebatullah Akhundzada chose Kandahar as the seat of his government (Al-Jazeera)
15- Hibatullah Akhundzadeh
Hebatullah Akhundzadeh was born in Afghanistan on October 19, 1967. He is one of the founding members of the Afghan Taliban movement, and he was close to the movement's founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar.
The Taliban Shura Council chose him as the leader of the movement on May 25, 2016, after the assassination of the former leader of the movement, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, who was assassinated in an American raid near the Pakistan-Iran border.
The leader of the Taliban movement Hebatullah Akhundzada belongs to the Noorzai tribe, and after the Taliban movement came to power again in August 2021, he chose the city of Kandahar as the main seat of his government.