# Habibullāh Kalakāni

Part of a series on the :
History of Afghanistan :
The palace of the emir in 1839 :
Timeline :
Ancient Indus Valley Civilisation 2200–1800 BC Oxus civilization 2100–1800 BC Gandhara kingdom 1500–535 BC Median Empire 728–550 BC Achaemenid Empire 550–330 BC Macedonian Empire 330–312 BC Seleucid Empire 312–150 BC Maurya Empire 305–180 BC Greco-Bactrian kingdom 256–125 BC Parthian Empire 247 BC–224 AD Indo-Greek kingdom 180–90 BC Indo-Scythian kingdom 155–80? BC Kushan Empire 135 BC – 248 AD Indo-Parthian kingdom 20 BC – 50? AD Sasanian Empire 230–651 Kidarite kingdom 320–465 Rob Alchon Huns 380–560 Hephthalite Empire 410–557 Nezak Huns 484–711 :
Medieval Kabul Shahi 565–879 Principality of Chaghaniyan 7th–8th centuries Rashidun Caliphate 652–661 Tang China 660–669 Tibetan Empire 660–842 Umayyads 661–750 Zunbils 680–870 Lawik750-977 Abbasids 750–821 Tahirids 821–873 Saffarids 863–900 Samanids 875–999 Ghaznavids 963–1187 Ghurids before 879–1215 Seljuks 1037–1194 Khwarezmids 1215–1231 Mongol Invasion 1219–1226 Chagatai Khanate 1226–1245 Qarlughids 1224–1266 Ilkhanate 1256–1335 Kartids 1245–1381 Timurids 1370–1507 Arghuns 1520–1591 :
Modern Mughals 1501–1738 Safavids 1510–1709 Kunduz Khanate ?–1859 Hotak dynasty 1709–1738 Sadozai Sultanate 1716–1732 Afsharid Iran 1738–1747 Durrani Empire 1747–1823 Maimana Khanate 1747–1892 Herat 1793–1863 Principality of Qandahar1818–1855 Emirate 1823–1926 Saqqawist Emirate 1929 Kingdom 1926–1973 Daoud coup 1973 Republic 1973–1978 Saur Revolution 1978 Democratic Republic 1978–1992 Tanai coup attempt 1990 Islamic State 1992–1996 Islamic Emirate 1996–2001 US invasion 2001 Islamic State (reinstated) 2001 Interim/Transitional Administration 2001–2004 Islamic Republic (politics) 2004–2021 Islamic Emirate (reinstated) since 2021 :
Related historical regions
Arachosia
Aria
Ariana
Bactria
Gandhara
Iran
Kabulistan
Kafiristan
Khorasan
Kushanshahr
Paropamisadae
Sistan
Zabulistan :
Related topics
Political history
Political violence
Culture
Economic history
Name
Afghan (ethnonym)
List of years
List of heads of state
Wars
List of wars
Hinduism history
Hindu and Buddhist heritage
Jewish history
Muslim conquests :
Category
Afghanistan portal :
vte :
Habibullah Kalakani (Dari: حبیب‌الله کلکانی‎, 19 January 1891 – 1 November 1929), derogatively called "Bacha-ye Saqao" (also romanized Bachai Sakao; literally son of the water carrier), was the ruler of Afghanistan from 17 January to 13 October 1929, as well as a leader of the Saqqawists. During the Afghan Civil War (1928–1929), he captured vast swathes of Afghanistan and ruled Kabul during what is known in Afghan historiography as the "Saqqawist period". He was an ethnic Tajik. No country recognized Kalakani as ruler of Afghanistan.
During the 1928–1929 Afghan Civil War he contested the Afghan throne with Amanullah Khan. After defeating Amanullah, he was eventually defeated by Mohammad Nadir Shah. Khalilullah Khalili, a noted historian and Kohistani poet laureate, depicted King Habibullah Kalakani as the "best manager of governmental imports and exports".

## Early years

Habibullah Kalakani was born in either 1891 or 1870 in the village of Kalakan, north of Kabul. He was an ethnic Tajik. His father was a water carrier during the Second Anglo-Afghan War for Afghan Soldiers in Kabul, hence why Pashtuns and people who dislike him call him Bacha Sakao as an insult to his father's background. In his memoirs, Kalakani stated that his home village was "miserable" and that he had "conceived a deep hatred of its poverty-stricken exterior". At age 14, he left for Kabul on horseback with his friends Nur and Jamal. Later, he joined King Amanullah Khan's army, and fought in the Third Anglo-Afghan War and the Khost rebellion of 1924. During the latter war, he served as officer with the Afghan Army's "Model Battalion" and served with distinction during the suppression of the insurgents. Nevertheless, he deserted the unit at some unspecified time, and after working in Peshawar moved to Parachinar where he was arrested and sentenced to eleven months of imprisonment by the British.
Kalakani began a life of banditry, since he considered the occupations common among the Kuhdamanis, like viticulture and selling firewood, to be beneath him, reasoning that these could hardly ever provide wheat bread for his table. Instead, he began to rob caravans and nearby villages. He was joined by Sayyid Husayn and Malik Muhsin, as well as others, totaling 24 in all. For three years, they lived in mountain caves, venturing out during the day to rob and hiding out at night, all the time fearful of government retaliation. Sometime later, Kalakani fled to Peshawar where he was a tea seller and a petty thief.
The word "bandits" derived from "Basmachi", which the Soviets used to refer to their opponents in Central Asia, since Habibullah Kalakani supported Ibrahim Bek Lakay, in his fight against the Soviets in Dushanbe and he was a part of the resistance movement (Basmachi) against Bolsheviks, therefore the Soviets called him and his comrades Basmachi meaning "bandits".
After British police arrested and jailed an accomplice of his, he fled to Peshawar where he stayed a while, supporting himself by petty theft. Kalakani and his bandit group also murdered Ghulam Ghaws Khan, Governor of Charikar.

## Revolt

While the Afghan Army was engulfed in battle with Pashtun outlaw tribes in Laghman and Nangarhar provinces in the east of the country, the Saqqawists, led by Kalakani began to attack the unprotected Kabul from the north in 1928. The revolt caught steam and the country was thrown into a civil war. Wild tribesmen from Waziristan had the southern areas of Kabul surrounded, and Kalakāni's forces were moving into the heart of Kabul from the north.
In the middle of the night, on 14 January 1929, Amanullah Khan handed over his kingdom to his brother Inayatullah Khan and escaped from Kabul, with his BMW, towards Kandahar in the south, fearing people's wrath. Two days later, on 16 January 1929, Kalakani wrote a letter to King Inayatullah Khan to either surrender or prepare to fight. Inayatullah Khan responded by explaining that he never wished to become king, and agreed to abdicate.

## Kingship

The powerful Pashtun tribes, including the Ghilzai, who had initially supported him against Amanullah, chafed under rule by a non-Pashtun. When Amanullah's last feeble attempt to regain his throne failed, those next in line were the Musahiban brothers. They were also from the Mohammedzai and Barakzai family trees, and their great-grandfather was an older brother of Dost Mohammad.
The five prominent Musahiban brothers included Nadir Shah, the eldest, who had been Amānullāh's minister of war. They were permitted to cross through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to enter Afghanistan and take up arms. Once on the other side, however, they were not allowed back and forth across the border to use British-Indian territory as a sanctuary, nor were they allowed to gather together a tribal army on the British side of the Durand Line. However, the Musahiban brothers and the tribes successfully ignored these restrictions.
During this period anti-Soviet rebels from Central Asia known as Basmachi utilized the period of instability in Afghanistan to launch raids into the Soviet Union. The Basmachi had taken refuge in Afghanistan earlier in the decade after they were expelled from Soviet Central Asia by the Soviet military and they swore allegiance to the Emir of Bukhara, who lived in exile in Kabul. One of these raids was led by Faizal Maksum, who operated under the command of Basmachi commander Ibrahim Bek. Faizal Maksum's forces briefly captured the town of Gharm until they were expelled by Soviet forces. The Basmachi operated in Afghanistan due to their alliance with Habibullah Ghazi and after his fall from power they were expelled from Afghanistan.

## Death

After several unsuccessful attempts, Nadir and his brothers finally raised a sufficiently large force—mostly from the British side of the Durand Line—to take Kabul on 13 October 1929. Nadir considered pardoning Kalakani, even swearing on the Quran according to some, but pressure from loyal tribes led him to execute Kalakani with some of his closest followers on 1 November 1929. Kalakani's last words prior to being executed were "I have nothing to ask God, he has given me everything I desired. God has made me King."
His remains were laid below a hilltop mausoleum at an undisclosed location for 87 years, until a campaign in 2016 by some Tajiks and scholars who wanted him to be reburied in a better place. This caused days of political and slight sectarian tensions in Kabul - Tajiks and religious scholars, who consider Kalakani to have been a devout Muslim, wanted him to be buried at the Shahrara hill and asked President Ashraf Ghani to plan a state burial. Opponents of Kalakani, mostly Pashtuns and secularists, were against this plan, including vice-president Abdul Rashid Dostum who claimed that he could not be buried at a hilltop important to Uzbek heritage. He was eventually buried at the hill on 2 September 2016, with one death and four injuries occurring in clashes between his supporters and pro-Dostum soldiers.