dreams melted into air, 1919–29the rolling stock, as well as trained the army and air force. Germany too
opened its own school, the ’Amani High School, where lessons were taught
in German. Turks, meanwhile, dominated the Military College, ran clinics
and hospitals, and had a major influence in education and constitutional
reform. However, the government lacked trained professionals and there
was little interest, or skill, when it came to maintaining equipment. The
outcome was that Afghanistan quickly became a graveyard of rusting metal
and idle factories.
The 1924 ConstitutionThe changes in taxation, conscription, the identity card and the cost of the
Amir’s palaces created much discontent, but it was ’Aman Allah Khan’s
decision to alter the nation’s legal and social system that provoked the
most bitter hostility. Shortly after taking power the Amir established a
Legislative Council and Council for Religious Knowledge to reform and
update the country’s law. Their committees were dominated by reformers
and progressive religious figures including Maulawi ‘Abd al-Wasi; a Turk
who had formerly been a policeman; and one of Dr Abdul Ghani’s brothers.
In April 1923 the council published the Nizam Nama-yi Asasi-yi Daulat-i
‘Aliyya-yi Afghanistan, 35 which consisted of 73 Articles, or Nizam Namas,
that were the foundation of Afghanistan’s first Constitution. The Nizam
Namas reflected Tarzi’s and the Young Afghans’ vision of reform and
modernization and drew heavily on Turkish models. Islam was declared
as the state religion but there was no mention of the Hanafi legal code,
though the Amir was to rule ‘in accordance with the principles enunci-
ated in the Shari‘a and in this Constitution’; a deliberate ambiguity that
allowed the Amir to set aside Islamic law if he deemed it to be in conflict
with the Constitution. Every citizen of Afghanistan was proclaimed equal,
regardless of their religion or sectarian affiliations, while the discriminatory
dress and jizya poll tax imposed on non-Muslims was abolished. There
was a declaration about the freedom of the press and freedom from arbi-
trary arrest, while primary education was to be compulsory for everyone,
including girls.
Tarzi’s ethno-nationalism was embedded in the Constitution’s defin iti on
of nationality, with ‘Afghan’ as the sole, official designation of citizenship.
A Pushtu Academy was set up to promote study of the language, but
the Nizam Namas stopped short of proclaiming Pushtu as the national
language as Tarzi had advocated. There was no legal status accorded to
pushtunwali or other customary law, known as ‘adat or rawaj, and the