Bārakzay Dynasty

▪ Afghan ruling family

      ruling family in Afghanistan in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Bārakzay brothers seized control of Afghanistan and in 1826 divided the region between them. Dōst Moḥammad Khān gained preeminence and founded the dynasty about 1837. Thereafter his descendants ruled in direct succession until 1929, when the reigning monarch abdicated and his cousin Moḥammad Nāder Khān was elected king.

      Nāder Khān, on his assassination in 1933, was succeeded by his son Zahir Shah (Zahir Shah, Mohammad), who reigned until July 17, 1973, when he was deposed and a republic was proclaimed. The Bārakzay rulers, in chronological order, were Dōst Moḥammad Khān, Shīr ʿAlī Khān, Yaʿqūb Khān, ʿAbdor Raḥmān Khān, Ḥabībollāh Khān, ʿAmānollāh Khān, Moḥammad Nāder Khān, and Mohammad Zahir Shah.

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