Ahmad Shah, Crown Prince of Afghanistan (

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

: احمد شاه خان,

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

: احمد شاه خان; born 23 September 1934) is the second son of

Mohammed Zahir Shah Mohammed Zahir Shah (Pashto/Dari: , 15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Serving for 40 years, Zahir was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan ...

, the former

King of Afghanistan This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first modern Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709. History The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan trib ...

. He holds the title of Head of the House of

Barakzai Bārakzai ( ps, بارکزی, ''Bārakzay;'' plur. ps, بارکزي, ''Bārakzī'') 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. A ...

since his father's death in July 2007.

Biography

At the time of his birth he was second in the line of succession to the throne after his older brother Muhammed Akbar Khan, Crown Prince of Afghanistan. However, following the death of his brother on 26 November 1942, he became first in the line of succession and the

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

and Crown Prince. He was educated first at

Esteqlal High School Esteqlal ( fa, استقلال, also Romanized as Esteqlāl) is a village in Seyyed Abbas Rural District, Shavur District, Shush County Shush County ( fa, شهرستان شوش) is in Khuzestan province, Iran. The capital of the county is th ...

, and College of Military Science, in Kabul. Later he attended the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, the

Institut d'études politiques de Paris , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

(IEP) and later spent time working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul. His father's reign ended on 17 July 1973, when he was ousted by a coup with Afghanistan being declared a republic by

Mohammed Daoud Khan Mohammed Daoud Khan ( ps, ), also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan (18 July 1909 – 28 April 1978), was an Afghan politician and general who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup ...

, a member of the royal family. The Crown Prince was one of fourteen members of the royal family arrested following the coup. He was allowed to leave the country for

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on 26 July. Following the overthrow of the monarchy, the Crown Prince settled in the state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, United States, and took to writing poetry.The head that wore the Crown
/ref> He currently writes poetry in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

. Since the death of his father on 23 July 2007, he is the oldest surviving male heir of the last reigning King of Afghanistan. Unlike his father, he does not possess the official title ''Baba-e-Melat-e-Afghanistan'' (

Father of the Nation The Father of the Nation is an honorific title given to a person considered the driving force behind the establishment of a country, state, or nation. (plural ), also seen as , was a Roman honorific meaning the "Father of the Fatherland", best ...

of Afghanistan).

Marriage and children

He was married at Chilstoon Palace in Kabul on 22 November 1961 to Princess Khatul Begum (born 1940), daughter of ''

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar/Sirdar ( fa, سردار, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other aristocrats. It has also been ...

'' Muhammad Umar Khan Zikeria, by his wife, Princess Sultana Begum, fourth daughter of

Mohammed Nadir Shah Mohammed Nadir Shah ( Persian and ps, محمد نادر شاه – born Mohammed Nadir Khan; 9 April 1883 – 8 November 1933) was King of Afghanistan from 15 October 1929 until his assassination in November 1933. Previously, he served as Mini ...

, King of Afghanistan (d. 1933). He has two sons and one daughter: * Prince Muhammad Zahir Khan (born 26 May 1962). He married Princess Oshila Begum (b. 1958). They have a daughter: ** Princess Roxanne Khanum (born 1988). * Prince Muhammad Emel Khan (born 1969). * Princess Hawa Khanum (born 27 October 1963). She married Sultan Muhammad Nawaz (b. 1963) and later divorced.

Ancestry

References

Barakzai dynasty Heirs apparent who never acceded 1934 births Living people Afghan princes Pashtun people Afghan expatriates in Italy Afghan emigrants to the United States Alumni of the University of Oxford 20th-century Afghan people 21st-century Afghan people {{Afghanistan-royal-stub