List of heads of state of Afghanistan
This article lists the heads of state of Afghanistan since the foundation of the first Afghan state, the Hotak Empire, in 1709.
The Hotak Empire was formed after a successful uprising led by Mirwais Hotak and other Afghan tribal chiefs from Kandahar against Mughal and Persian rule.
After a long series of wars, the Hotak Empire was eventually replaced by the Durrani Afghan Empire that was founded by Ahmad Shah Durrani in 1747.
After the collapse of the Durrani Empire in 1823, the Barakzai dynasty founded the Emirate of Afghanistan, transformed it into the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1926, and ruled the country until the last King Mohammed Zahir Shah was deposed in the 1973 coup d'état, led by his first cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan. Despite being part of the Barakzai dynasty, Daoud Khan departed from tradition and did not proclaim himself Shah, instead abolished the monarchy and established the Republic of Afghanistan, with himself as President. The Republic lasted until the Saur Revolution in 1978.
Since 1978, Afghanistan has been in a state of continuous internal conflict and foreign interventions.
The former president Hamid Karzai became the first ever democratically elected head of state of Afghanistan on 7 December 2004. The current president is Ashraf Ghani, since 29 September 2014.List of heads of state
Monarchs
Local monarchs
Some rulers tried to take advantage of internal conflicts in Afghanistan to claim the throne. However, their rule was limited only to certain areas.Non-monarchs
Standards of heads of state
