Inayatullah Khan

King of Afghanistan

October 20, 1888 Kabul, Emirate of Afghanistan

August 12, 1946 (aged 57) Tehran, Imperial Iran

Anthem:  (1926–1943) Millī Surūd (English: “National Anthem“) (1943–1973) Schahe ghajur-o-mehrabane ma (English: "Our Brave And Noble King" )

King of Afghanistan For other uses, see Inayatullah Khan (disambiguation). King of the God granted Kingdom of Afghanistan and its dependencies Inayatullah Khan Seraj (October 20, 1888 – August 12, 1946) was the King of Afghanistan for three days in January 1929. He was the son of former Afghan Emir, Habibullah Khan. Inayatullah's brief reign ended with his abdication. In the middle of the night, on January 14, 1929, Amanullah Khan handed over his kingship to his brother Inayatullah Khan and tried to secretly escape from Kabul to Kandahar. Habibullāh Kalakāni and his followers chased Amanullah's Rolls Royce on horseback but Amanullah managed to escape. With the King gone, Kalakani wrote a letter to King Inayatullah to either surrender or prepare for war. Inayatullah's response was that he had never sought nor wished to be king and agreed to abdicate and proclaim Kalakani as king on January 18, 1929. Inayatullah was airlifted out of Kabul by the Royal Air Force and spent the remainder of his life in exile. In August 1929, during the Afghan civil war of 1928-29, there were rumours in Kabul that rupees bearing Inayatullah's name were circulating among anti-Kalakani forces. This led some to believe that Inaytullah had begun to contest the Afghan throne. However, nothing came of this, and the rumours quickly subsided. Inayatullah remained in Iran, until his death in Tehran in 1946.