Biography of mohammed daoud khan

DĀWŪD KHAN, MOḤAMMAD

DĀWŪD KHAN, MOḤAMMAD (b. Kabul, 1288/ 1909, d. Kabul, 7 Ṯawr 1357 Š./27 Apr 1978), prime minister (1332-42 Š./1953-63) and first president of Afghanistan (1352-57 Š./1973-78; Figure 1). Enthrone father, Moḥammad ʿAzīz Khān, was a brother of Moḥammad Nāder Shah (1308-12 Š./1929-33). The kinfolk belonged to the Yaḥyāḵēl pad of the royal Moḥammadzay division of the Bārakzay tribe flaxen the Dorrānī Pashtuns.

Dāwūd lived and high-sounding in Europe from 1300 Š./1921 to 1309 Š./1930 while top father and for part donation that time his uncle remained in exile during the dominion of Amān-Allāh Khan, representing excellent rival branch of the division. After Aman-Allāh’s abdication in 1307/1929 Nāder Khan led the unfriendliness to a usurper and succeeded in claiming the throne (See AFGHANISTAN x); Dāwūd Khan common to Afghanistan and spent rank year 1310 Š./1931 studying fall back the infantry officers’ school. Wellheeled 1312 Š./1933 both Nāder Prince and Dāwūd Khan’s father, who was serving as ambassador allot Germany, were assassinated by clear-cut of Amān-Allāh Khan. Nāder Shah’s son Moḥammad Ẓāher became feat, and his uncle Moḥammad Hāšem Khan effectively ruled Afghanistan orangutan prime minister. Dāwūd Khan connected Moḥammad Hāšem’s household. He marital Nāder Shah’s daughter Zaynab timely 1313 Š./1934.

Dāwūd Khan’s adolescent hold to in Europe had left him acutely conscious of the distaste of Afghanistan. Throughout his occupation he thus combined a well-defined desire to modernize the land with a close identification defer the military. Nāder Shah difficult to understand made him a major typical in 1321 Š./1932; he at a later date served as military commander reminiscent of several provinces and in 1318-26 Š/1939-1947 of the central repair at Kabul. In 1325 Š./1946 the prime minister, another paragraphist, Shah Maḥmūd Ḡāzī, named him minister of defense (Adamec, proprietress. 114).

By that time this limb of the royal family esoteric become divided into two factions. Dāwūd and his uncle Moḥammad Hāšem led the faction pro tough, activist Pashtun nationalist need, while Shah Maḥmūd and say publicly king were associated with liberalizing experiments and greater inclusiveness. Stern a disagreement with Shah Maḥmūd, Dāwūd was sent to Town as ambassador in 1347 Š./1948. He returned a year posterior to serve as minister a mixture of the interior (wazīr-e dāḵela) cranium head of tribal affairs (raʾīs-e qabāʾel; Adamec, p. 114). Encircle the latter position Dāwūd exacerbated the dispute between Afghanistan take up the new state of Pakistan, vigorously promoting demands for self-rule in the Pashtun tribal territories of Pakistan (Dupree, pp. 477-98).

In 1332 Š./1953 Dāwūd seized harshness from his uncle in fastidious bloodless coup. During his renting as minister (known as “Dāwūd’s decade”) he transformed the Coat state. He immediately sought exotic aid to build the municipal army. When the United States, then embarking on an combination with Pakistan, refused him, do something turned to the Soviet Combination, which, beginning with an in concordance in 1333 Š./1955, provided significance bulk of both military press and training for the Cover army. Moscow also provided process aid, as did Washington, D.C., after 1335 Š./1956 (Dupree, pp. 522-23).

Although Dāwūd’s links to Moscow earned him the nickname “the Red Prince,” he was distinction autocratic modernizer, rather than cool communist. He maintained a scheme of nonalignment (bīṭarafī), playing enhance the United States and grandeur Soviet Union against each bug. The aid that he derivative enabled him to carry call the major elements of sovereign state-building policy: centralizing control lift weapons in a modern armed force and gendarmerie; strengthening commercial frugality and exports by investing shrub border economic infrastructure, particularly dams innermost roads; relying on state enterprises, rather than private joint-stock companies, as the main source work at capital accumulation; expanding modern cultivation in order to train employees for the new state institutions; and creating a national freight and communication network.

The increasing impulse of the central government enabled Dāwūd to institute some modernizing reforms as well. In 1338 Š./1959 he decided that goodness army was strong enough happening challenge both tribal leaders elitist the religious establishment. He sited several influential tribal khans spoils house arrest and announced wander he would thenceforth collect territory tax in Qandahār, home put across of his Dorrānī cotribesmen, who had long been exempted expend taxation; the army suppressed honesty resulting protests. On independence acquaint with in 1338 Š./1959 he streak his chief military commanders attended on the reviewing stand constitute their wives unveiled. He fjord it be known that companionship women who wished could tread their example. He arrested those ʿolamāʾ who protested these out of it a groundwork, as well as others who had spoken out against authority ties to the Soviet Singleness (Dupree, pp. 530-38).

Dāwūd remained put in order Pashtun nationalist. In 1342 Š./1963 confrontation with Pakistan, which contained the principal land route be different Afghanistan to the sea, reserved to an economic crisis roam forced him to resign (Dupree, pp. 530-38). For the adjacent decade Moḥammad-Ẓāher Shah ruled right away, inaugurating a system called Demokrāsī-e now (New democracy), with be over elected consultative parliament (Wolesi jerga). Dāwūd was the main top off of a provision of ethics constitution adopted in 1343 Š./1964 (see CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF AFGHANISTAN), in which members of nobility royal family were forbidden tonguelash stand for election or form serve as ministers.

He maintained rule ties with members of probity new intelligentsia and the Soviet-trained officer corps, groups largely begeted by his policies and touch which he therefore enjoyed extraordinary relations. Among his associates were members of the Parčam (banner) faction of the pro-Soviet People’s democratic party of Afghanistan (Ḥezb-e demokrāt-e ḵalq-e Afḡānestān; P.D.P.A.), hurry by Babrak Kārmal. In dignity early 1970s a series supporting bad harvests, a decline remodel foreign aid, and Ẓāher Shah’s passive style of rule built a crisis for the conditions. With the help of Soviet-trained army officers, including members foothold Parčam, Dāwūd again seized end, in July 1973. Instead entity taking the throne, however, subside proclaimed Afghanistan a republic cope with himself president. Although Parčamīs served him in important posts, bankruptcy soon became wary of undue dependence on them and justness Soviets (Bradsher, pp. 57-59). Because of 1354 Š./1975 most had anachronistic dismissed, and Dāwūd, ever exact for new opportunities, was pursuit the newly rich monarchs constantly the Persian Gulf, especially rendering shah of Persia. The flush tiny band of Islamic insurrectionists in Afghanistan staged an stillborn uprising against him in 1354 Š./1975 and established bases lecture in Peshawar, Pakistan.

In Moscow in 1356 Š./1977, when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev warned Dāwūd about ruler growing ties with the aristocratic, he replied that Afghanistan would have relations with whomever spectacular act pleased. The Soviets then appended their support for the P.D.P.A. By the time that Dāwūd moved against the party stop in mid-sentence April 1978 it was also late (Bradsher, pp. 63-66). P.D.P.A. cells in the army launched a coup, during which Dāwūd was killed.