It was founded in 1931 by King Mohammed Nadir Shah, whose prime minister at the time was his younger brother, Sardar Mohammad Hashim Khan.

[9] Kabul University was established in 1932 during the reign of King Mohammed Nadir Shah and during the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Hashim Khan, opening its doors one year later to students from across the country.

In 1936, the Faculty of Law & Political Sciences on the same campus was established by Turkish Mehmed Ali Dağpınar.

The first nine graduates of the Faculty of Medicine played significant roles in Afghanistan's university community reforms; two of them were Muhammad Yusuf (the prime minister) and Fattah Najeem.

[13] During the governance of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Kabul University lost several lecturers and staff.

[citation needed] The majority of the university's faculty left during the ten-year period of unrest or civil war that followed the fall of the PDPA government in 1992.

After the removal of the Taliban government in late 2001, the international community focused on rebuilding the educational institutions in Afghanistan.

Furthermore, the Information Technology Center was founded in 2002 with the cooperation of German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Technische Universität Berlin.

Critics noted that Ghairat had no qualifications beyond running a small madrassah, and believes he was installed for his loyalty to the Taliban.

"[8][20] In October 2021, Ghairat was replaced by Osama Aziz, who holds a doctorate in Islamic Jurisprudence (Sharia law).

[23][24] Kabul University reopened on 26 February 2022, with female students attending in the morning and males in the afternoon.

[9][10][26] The National Centre for Policy Research was established at Kabul University by the Ministry of Higher Education and Konrad Adenauer Foundation in 2003, and includes faculty in the departments of Law and Politics, Economics, and Social Science.