Mohammad Afzal Khan

{{Short description|Emir of Afghanistan from 1866 to 1867}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{About|the Afghani Emir|the Fijian Politician|Mohammed Afzal Khan|the British Politician|M. Afzal Khan}}

{{Infobox royalty

| name = Mohammad Afzal Khan
{{nq|محمد افضل خان}}

| title = Emir of Afghanistan

| image = Amir-Muhammad-Afzal-Khan.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| caption = Sketch work of Mohammad Afzal Khan

| succession = Emir of Afghanistan

| reign = May 1866 – 7 October 1867

| coronation =

| full name =

| predecessor = Sher Ali Khan

| successor = Mohammad Azam Khan

| spouse =

| issue =

| royal house =

| dynasty = Barakzai dynasty

| father = Dost Mohammed Khan

| mother = a daughter of Mullah Sadiq Ali

| religion = Sunni Islam

| birth_date = 1815

| birth_place =

| death_date = 7 October 1867 (aged 52)

| death_place =

| date of burial =

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}}

Mohammad Afzal Khan (1815 – 7 October 1867; Dari/Pashto: {{nq|محمد افضل خان}}) was the governor of Afghan Turkestan from 1849 to 1863{{Cite web |last=Habibi |first=A. |date=1984 |title=AFŻAL KHAN, AMIR MOḤAMMAD |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/afzal-khan-amir-mohammad |website=Encyclopaedia Iranica}} and Emir of Afghanistan from May 1866 to October 1867. The oldest son of Dost Mohammad Khan, Afzal Khan was born in Kabul in 1815.{{Cite book|last1=McChesney|first1=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9QkzAQAAQBAJ|title=The History of Afghanistan: Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah's Sirāj al-tawārīkh|last2=Khorrami|first2=Mohammad Mehdi|date=19 December 2012|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-23498-7|language=en}} His father died on 9 June 1863{{Cite book|last=Hasan Kakar|first=Mohammad|title=A Political and Diplomatic History of Afghanistan, 1863-1901|publisher=Brill Publishers|year=2006|isbn=9004151850|pages=9–15}} followed by a civil war among Dost Mohammad Khan's sons.{{Cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Christopher Julian |last=Wallace |title='Masterly inactivity': Lord Lawrence, Britain and Afghanistan, 1864-1879 |publisher=King's College, London|url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/masterly-inactivity-lord-lawrence-britain-and-afghanistan-18641879(4e245986-7381-4c81-8824-622a4c9102eb).html|access-date=27 July 2021}} In May 1866 he seized power from his brother Sher Ali Khan and captured Kabul. A year later he contracted cholera and died on 7 October 1867.{{Cite book|last=Lee|first=Johnathan|title=Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=2019|isbn=978-1789140101|pages=321–364}} Following Afzal Khan's death, Mohammad Azam Khan was proclaimed Amir of Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Pashtun and belonged to the Barakzai tribe.

Mohammad Afzal Khan's third son Abdur Rahman Khan was Emir from 1880 to 1901.{{Cite web |url=http://www.kosmix.com/topic/abdur_rahman_khan |title=Kosmix |access-date=2 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101027113234/http://www.kosmix.com/topic/abdur_rahman_khan |archive-date=27 October 2010 |url-status=dead }} Afzal Khan was also responsible for the creation of Takhtapul.{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Jonathan L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYaamE_3kD4C |title=The "Ancient Supremacy": Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731-1901 |date=1996-01-01 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-10399-3 |language=en}}