Images from the past : Afghanistan

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Stop at a "highway rest house" during the drive from Kandahar to Kabul, Afghanistan, August 1966.

Kabul, 1969

An Afghan Kuchi (Nomad) Wedding, Herat Province, Afghanistan, 1969 (c).

© Eve Arnold / Magnum Photos

 

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (left) with his mother (second to the left). Photographed in late 1960's.

A shopfront display of fruits and nuts in Kabul, in November of 1961.

Men stroll past roadside vendors as a painted truck makes its way through the busy street in Kabul, Afghanistan, November, 1961.

University Students In Kabul, 1960's (c).

 

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Pak-Afghan Border Crossing At Torkham, Khyber Pass, 29 July 1963.

© Jeff Kinlaw

 

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Afghan Peace Delegates At Murree, 1919 (c).

Murree was a British hill station near Rawalpindi. The Afghan peace delegation stayed their before signing the Treaty of Rawalpindi which formally ended the 3rd Afghan War (1919) on 8 August 1919.

The treaty finally gave the Afghans the right to conduct their own foreign affairs as a fully independent state. For the British, the Durand Line, long a contentious issue between the two nations, was reaffirmed as the political boundary separating Afghanistan from the North West Frontier. The Afghans also agreed to stop interfering with the tribes on the British side of the line.

One of 267 photographs probably compiled by Private A E Neal, 2/6 Bn the Royal Sussex Regiment, India 1916-1919, Waziristan, 1917 and Afghanistan, 1919.

© National Army Museum

 

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A man selling momos or mantoo or dumplings on a street market along Jada-e Maiwand or Jadah-i Maiwand , the main avenue of Kabul, Afghanistan, November, 1973.
© Ludo Kuipers

 

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King Mohammed Zahir Shah Of Afghanistan Was Photographed In His Paris Parlor With His Dog, February 1950.

His Majesty Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan (Shown in Picture) was overthrown by his own cousin Daud Khan in July 1973. Daud Khan was Killed by a Pro-Soviet Union political party "Communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan" and their leader Nur Muhammad Taraki took over the government by force in April 1978.

Next year he was overthrown by Hafizullah Amin who asked Soviet union to send troops to save his government and Soviets complied. The rest is history.

 

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Kabul University, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1978 (c).

 

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King Nadir Shah of Afghanistan holds a review of his troops, 1929 (c).

Afghan Soldiers In Drill Order, Afghanistan, 1920's (c).

 

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Queen Soraya Tarzi of Afghanistan, 1927 (c).

Soraya Tarzi mostly known as Queen Soraya was the first Queen consort of Afghanistan in the 20th century and the only wife of King Amanullah Khan. Born in November, 1899 in Damascus Syria, where she studied and learned modern values.

She became the Princess of Afghanistan in 1913 after marrying Prince Amanullah. She was crowned as Queen in 1919 and became one of the most influential woman of the world.

To prevent the civil war King Amanullah abdicated and went into exile in 1929. Soraya lived in Rome and died in April 1968. Her body was taken to Afghanistan and buried in Bagh-e-Amir shaheed in Jalalabad.

 

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Afghan Hindus And Sikhs Sitting In A Programme Organised By The Mandir Or Temple In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1970's (c).

 

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US President Nixon visited Kabul in 1953 to speak with the King and Prime Minister Daoud during his goodwill tour of Asia.

The meeting made such an impression on Nixon that 16 years later, when he was President, he sent King Zahir Shah a nostalgic telegram from Air Force One while flying over Afghanistan en route to the Philippines.

 

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Tomb Of Sultan Mohammed Khan Telai In Kabul, Afghanistan, 1936 (c).

Sultan Mohammad Khan, also known as "Sultan Muhammad Khan Telai" was an Afghan Aristocrat, Chief Minister and regent, who resigned in favor of his younger brother Amir Dost Muhammad Khan. His other brother was Fateh Khan, who died in 1818. During the reign of his brother he was chief minister and governor of various regions of the Emirate.

He was the first Musahiban, an ethnic Pashtun, and the 15th son of Sardar Payendah Khan (chief of the Barakzai tribe) who was killed in 1799 by Zaman Shah Durrani. Sultan Muhammad Khan's grandfather was Hajji Jamal Khan. His immense love for materialism, like clothes and golden cutlery led to his family giving him his nickname "Telai", meaning golden.

The result was amongst other things no progress and social injustice. These cases of power abuses were well known in the Afghan monarchy, even during the regency of Sultan Muhammad Khan's descendants of the Musahiban branch.

© Frederick G. Clapp / UWM Libraries

 

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The Last King Of Afghanistan, 1965 (c).

This is the photo of the last King of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah (1933-73) having a tea with two associates at a humble shop in Kabul in 1965.

He was deposed by his cousin and former Prime Minister Mohd Daoud Khan in 1973 in a bloodless coup when he was in Italy undergoing an eye surgery. Strangely not a single soul took out to roads in protest for their King.

He was given the title of Father of the Nation in 2002 which he held till his death in 2007. Daoud Khan and his family was assassinated in April 1978 which plunged Afghanistan into ongoing civil war which continues till date.

Those were the times when King could roam around in Kabul without weapons.

 

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Kabul-Paghman Road Construction, Afghanistan, 1915-16 (c).

Elephants Of Afghan Emir In Their Ceremonial Garb, Afghanistan, 1915-16 (c).
Photo Taken By German Mission In Afghanistan, 1915-1916. From The Album Oscar von Niedermeyer "Afghanistan" (Leipzig, 1924).
© Oscar von Niedermeyer / Marakanda