This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709.
History
The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan tribal chiefs from the Kandahar region against Mughal and Safavid Persian rule.
After a long series of wars, the Hotak Empire was eventually replaced by the Durrani Afghan Empire, founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747.
After the collapse of the Durrani Empire in 1823, the Barakzai dynasty founded the Emirate of Afghanistan.
The Durrani dynasty regained power in 1839, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, when former ruler Shah Shujah Durrani seized the throne under the British auspices.
Shah Shujah was assassinated in 1842, following the British retreat.
Afterwards the Barakzai dynasty regained power, eventually transformed the Emirate into the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1926, and ruled the country (with an interruption in 1929) until the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was deposed in the 1973 coup d'état, led by his first cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
Despite being part of the Barakzai dynasty, Daoud Khan departed from tradition and did not proclaim himself Shah, instead abolished the monarchy and established the Republic of Afghanistan, with himself as President.
The Republic lasted until the Saur Revolution in 1978.
Since 1978, Afghanistan has been in a state of continuous internal conflict and foreign interventions.
The former president Hamid Karzai became the first ever democratically elected head of state of Afghanistan on 7 December 2004.
His successor, Ashraf Ghani, had been in power from 29 September 2014 to 15 August 2021, when he went to exile as Kabul fell to the Taliban during their 2021 offensive, following the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
The Taliban officially restored the Islamic Emirate on 19 August 2021 and their leader Hibatullah Akhundzada became the new head of state.
List of heads of state
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office) Monarchs
Hotak Empire (1709–1738)
Durrani Empire (1747–1823)
Emirate of Afghanistan (1823–1926)
Kingdom of Afghanistan (1926–1929)
Saqqawist Emirate and the 1928–1929 civil war
Kingdom of Afghanistan (restored; 1929–1973) Local monarchs
Some rulers tried to take advantage of internal conflicts in Afghanistan to claim the throne.
However, their rule was limited only to certain areas.
Non-monarchs
Timeline from 1880
Standards of heads of state
File:Royal Standard of the King of Afghanistan (1931–1973).svg|Standard of the King of Afghanistan, 1931–1973.
File:Standard of the President of Afghanistan (2004-2013).svg|Standard of the President of Afghanistan, 2004–2013.
File:Standard of the President of Afghanistan.svg|Standard of the President of Afghanistan, 2013–2021.
See also
President of Afghanistan
Prime Minister of Afghanistan
Chief Executive (Afghanistan)
Politics of Afghanistan
History of Afghanistan
List of Pashtun empires and dynasties
Name of Afghanistan
Afghan (ethnonym)
Notes
References
External links
Presidency of Afghanistan
Afghanistan * * * Heads of state
