[5] In 1973, while Zahir Shah was undergoing medical treatment in Italy,[6] his regime was overthrown in a coup d'état by his cousin and former prime minister, Mohammad Daoud Khan, who established a single-party republic, ending more than 225 years of continuous monarchical government.

[1] Zahir Shah was born on 15 October 1914, in a city quarter called Deh Afghanan in Kabul, Afghanistan into a Barakzai Pashtun family.

Zahir Shah was educated in a special class for princes at Elementary Primary, built in 1904 by the United Kingdom, and Habibia High School, where many subjects were taught in English.

[10] When he returned to Afghanistan he helped his father and uncles restore order and reassert government control during a period of lawlessness in the country.

Zahir Shah provided aid, weapons, and Afghan fighters to the Uighur and Kirghiz Muslim rebels who had established the First East Turkestan Republic.

[17] After the end of World War II, Zahir Shah recognised the need for the modernisation of Afghanistan and recruited a number of foreign advisers to assist with the process.

"[21] He was considered a relatively lenient leader compared to previous kings; Zahir Shah had never signed a warrant for the execution of anyone for political reasons during his reign.

[23] In 1973, while Zahir Shah was abroad in Italy, his cousin Mohammad Daoud Khan staged a coup d'état and established an autocratic republican government.

[24] In August 1973,[25][23] Zahir Shah sent a letter from Rome to Khan in Kabul declaring his abdication, saying he respected "the will of my compatriots" after realizing the people of Afghanistan "with absolute majority welcomed a Republican regime".

[26] Zahir Shah lived in exile in Italy for 29 years alongside his wife Queen Humaira Begum and other royal family members.

President Daoud Khan continued to send money to them in Italy consisting of income from property and estates of the former royal family.

[27] Zahir Shah eventually lived in a villa in the affluent community of Olgiata on Via Cassia, north of Rome, where he spent his time playing golf and chess, as well as tending to his garden.

[9] It has also been reported that Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, and India had all tried to persuade Zahir Shah to return as chief of a neutral, possibly interim, administration in Kabul.

[31] Both the Soviet Union and the United States sent representatives to meet him, and President Mohammad Najibullah supported Zahir Shah to play a role in a possible interim government in the quest for peace.

[32] In May 1990, Zahir Shah issued a long statement through Voice of America and the BBC calling for unity and peace among Afghans, and offering his services.

However, the idea of a revived political role for Zahir Shah was met with hostility by some, notably radical Islamist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

The assassin stated “Now I must kill you”, before stabbing Zahir Shah in his breast-pocket, the former king’s life being saved by a tin of Café Crème cigarillos.

[34] After the fall of the pro-Soviet government, Zahir Shah was favored by many to return and restore the monarchy to unify the country as he was acceptable to most factions.

On 18 April 2002, at the age of 87 and four months after the end of Taliban rule, Zahir Shah returned to Afghanistan, flown in on an Italian military plane, and welcomed at Kabul's airport by Hamid Karzai and other officials.

At the time, most delegates to the Loya Jirga were prepared to vote for Zahir Shah and block the U.S.-backed leader of the Northern Alliance, Hamid Karzai.

It began on the premises of the presidential palace, where politicians and dignitaries paid their respects; his coffin was then taken to a mosque before being moved to the royal mausoleum on Maranjan Hill in eastern Kabul.

They had six sons and two daughters: In January 2009, an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included one of his grandsons, Mustafa Zahir, on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan presidential election.

His granddaughter, Princess Noal of Afghanistan, is the wife of Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Sa'id, the heir apparent to the abolished thrones of Egypt and Sudan.