About Amanullah Khan
Ghazi Amanullah Khan Barakzai (1 June 1892 – 26 April 1960) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1926, and then King of Afghanistan from 1926 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. Amanullah's rule was marked by dramatic political and social change, including attempts to modernize Afghanistan along Western lines. He did not fully succeed in achieving this objective due to an uprising by Habibullah Kalakani and his followers. On 14 January 1929, Amanullah abdicated and fled to neighbouring British India as the Afghan Civil War began to escalate. From British India, he went to Europe, where after 30 years in exile, he died in Zürich, Switzerland, on 26 April 1960. His body was brought to Afghanistan and buried in Jalalabad near his father Habibullah Khan's tomb. Among those in his retinue were his brother Nasrullah Khan, Habibullah's first son from his first wife Inayatullah, and Habibullah's commander-in-chief Nadir Khan. Amanullah created new more cosmopolitan schools for both boys and girls in the regions and overturned centuries-old traditions such as strict dress codes for women. The remainder of Habibullah's party journeyed southeast to Jalalabad, and on 21 February 1919 reached the city, where Nasrullah was declared Emir, supported by Habibullah's first son Inayatullah.
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