Habibullah Kalakani

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Habībullāh Kalakānī, also known as Bača-e Saqqaw (English translation: "son of a water carrier") or the "Bandit King", was Emir of Afghanistan in 1929.

Habībullāh Kalakānī became Emir for a few months in 1929 by deposing Amanullah Khan with the help of various Pashtun tribes who opposed the King's rapid modernization plans.^[1] He was himself overthrown and executed in October 1929 by Mohammed Nadir Shah.

Habībullāh Kalakānī was the only ethnic Tajik to rule Afghanistan, a nation that in its short history is traditionally ruled by Pashtuns.

Contents 1 His early years 2 His Kingship 3 His exile and execution 4 References 5 External links

[edit] His early years

Habībullāh Kalakānī was born north of Kabul in the 1890s. Kalakani's father was a gardener who sent Kalakani to a local madrasa to study the Qur'an and to also receive modern education. During his stay at the madrasa, Kalakani is alleged to have not approved of his teacher, a mullah, so he left school early. He worked with his father for Mohammed Hussain Khan (father of the revered Afghanistan poet Khalilollah Khalili), a member of the government of Afghanistan at the time. Together with his father, he worked in the village of Hussain Kot, near Kabul. Kalakānī's task was to go into Kabul and sell some local products by order of his father. Kalakani was not satisfied with the low income contrasted with the perils he faced daily.

During his adolescence, Kalakānī ventured out of his village and traveled to Kabul and later to Jalalabad and Peshawar, where he performed odd jobs to sustain himself. In the south, he ran into an old Sufi who told him that he would become king one day and then handed him an amulet to keep for good luck.^[2] In 1919, he returned to Kabul and joined Amanullah Khan's army. Kalakānī became once again disillusioned by his income from the army, and compounded with his disobedience and unwillingness to follow orders, he decided to return back to his village in Kalakān.

In Kalakān, he amassed money by looting the caravans^{[citation needed]} that ventured the Silk Road from China and the Middle East to Europe. Kalakānī, with the experience gained in his military training, was able to loot the highly protected caravans. With his newfound wealth, he accumulated new respect and was considered a Khan of his village by that time.

By 1928, Amanullah had returned from Europe and brought with him vast social and cultural changes, including that all citizens of Afghanistan were to wear western clothes. This act, as well as pictures of the Queen of Afghanistan in western attire—without a headscarf—had upset the ultra conservative Shinwari tribe and they called for the banishment of the King and the Queen from Afghanistan. A civil revolt broke out in Laghman, and Kalakani used his troops to quell the unrest. With a change of plans, Kalakani decided to resist the government officials in the north and, thus, a $10,000 bounty was placed on him.

With Amanullah's army engulfed in severe battle in Laghman and Jalalabad, Kalakānī began to attack Kabul from the north. His mission was to disgrace Amanullah and show him as a weak king full of bluff, all talk and no action. The revolt caught steam and by then the whole country was standing up against the king. Kabul was surrounded by the Tribes in the south and Kalakānī's fellows to the north. In the middle of the night, Amanullah handed over his kingdom to his brother Enayatullah Khan and escaped from Kabul towards Kandahar in his Rolls Royce. Kalakānī and his friends chased Amanullah on horseback, but they were no match for the royal car.

In January of 1929, with the King gone, Kalakani wrote a letter to King Enayatullah to either surrender or prepare to fight. Enayatullah's response was that he had never sought nor wished to be king and agreed to abdicate and proclaim Kalakānī king. One of Kalakānī's biographies notes from the oral speeches of Kalakānī, that he once said "I was not Amanullah Khan, nor a Mohammadzai Sardar, I didn't know how to act royal, and I did not want to be the king of Afghanistan. I was a simple gardener and simple former, who became king."^{[citation needed]} Kalakānī married a Mohammadzai woman from the royal family that he had captured, in order to teach himself how to act as a royal King and visit the foreign representatives^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] His Kingship

(January 1929 – October 1929)

His first order was to change all the western attire back to traditional clothing and to remove all the flowers from the presidential grounds and plant vegetables instead.

By September 1929, Amanullah had stopped in Kandahar to regroup his followers and recalled his top General, Mohammad Nadir Khan, from Europe. General Nadir Khan's Army breezed through the west and southern Afghanistan. They had English weapons and had English printing machines to propaganda against Kalakānī as well as money to pay volunteers to join the army. Furthermore, the British furnished Nadir Khan with a troop consisting of 1000 young people from tribal Wazīristan and southern parts of Afghanistan. They were hired by the British and given modern weapons. The troop fast approached toward Kabul. The one man whom Kalakānī feared was coming for him. By October 1929, Kabul was surrounded by the forces of Nadir Khan, and Kalakānī escaped from Kabul towards his village in Kalakān as a fugitive.

[edit] His exile and execution

It is said that in Jabulsaraj, Kalakānī manipulated his next move. While the villagers surrounded him, and begin to stone him till he was unconscious^{[citation needed]}, Kalakānī appeared in front of his friends and villagers and told them: "I am able to recapture Kabul and oust Nadir from the Royal palace. But I do not want to kill my countrymen only to regain power for myself, Kalakānī. From the beginning of my power I did not want to be the King of Afghanistan. But you people urged me. I wanted to recall Amanullah and offer the kingdom back to him. But it was not the wish of God."^{[citation needed]}

In the meantime, General Nadir Shah sent a message to Kalakānī sealed in a Q'uran that read: "Come to the government. The government regards you and your friends, you receive general forgiveness from the Royal government of Afghanistan". The mediator between Kalakānī's group and Nadir Shah was the Hazrati Shourbazari Kabul, a clergyman well-regarded by Afghanistan's citizens.

Kalakānī again gathered his friends and displayed the Q'uran and Nadir Shah's letter to them and waited to hear their reply. Their answer was negative because they did not trust Nadir Shah, whom they considered to be treacherous. They warned Kalakānī not to accept the words of Nadir Shah, but Kalakānī turned his face towards his friends and told them: "I do not fear death. I shall go to them." Kalakani kissed the Q'uran and told the delegate: "I come to you and surrender myself."^{[citation needed]}

It is related that Kalakānī and his friends then rode directly to the Royal palace and asked for an audience with the King, Nadir Shah. The reply message was clear, to "bring them disarmed". When Kalakānī came in front of Nadir Shah, he took the Royal position and pulled out the Royal seal from his pocket and said: "Oh God you are witness I kept and used this deposit honestly, while I was in power of Afghanistan. Now the King Nadir Shah is in my place. Oh God, you are witness, I return this deposit safe to him. I hope Nadir Khan is able to keep it safe and use it to the sack of the people of Afghanistan." Then Kalakānī turned his face to Nadir Khan and said: "I do not fear for myself, but do not be cruel to my friends." Kalakānī returned back to his place and sat like any common person.

It is related that Nadir then sent him to the polygon where Kalakānī found himself in a chamber of Nadir's followers. "What do you have to say Kalakānī? Guilty or not Guilty?" shouted an officer. Kalakānī laughed on the officer’s word. After pausing a moment, he said "My answer is there, for all to see" he pointed to the polygon. He was later taken to the execution ground. While he prepared for the execution, he knelt down and made his peace with God. Kalakānī looked up toward sky and said "Oh God, I have nothing to ask from you, you have given me everything that, I have wanted, you made me King...". As he smiled the firing squad ended his life.

This miss information is written by some one who has ether no knowledge or would like to hide the truth, it would not be surprising if the writer is a Pashtoon. Habībullāh Kalakānī was the Robin hood of Afghanistan but the elitist pashtoon's would like to belittle his life. Go on write miss history but do not forget that history has not ended.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Biography: Habibullah Kalakani Afghanistan Online