On October 1, 1901, the reigning amir of Afghanistan ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan died of natural causes. In what amounted to Kabul’s most peaceful transition of power of the twentieth century, the new amir Habibullah Khan (r. 1901-1919) announced a series of measures designed to attract foreign experts for an array of infrastructural projects in his kingdom. Utilizing archival records from Turkey, Afghanistan, India, and Britain, in this paper I focus on a particularly influential stream of migrants arriving in Afghanistan during this time: the Ottomans of Kabul. Part I establishes the historical background for Ottoman subjects traveling to Afghanistan amid the convergence of three events in the country’s early twentieth century history: the death of “Iron Amir” ʿAbd al-Rahman Khan, the return of Afghan exiles from abroad, and royal invitations to Ottoman professionals to settle in Afghanistan, a development tied to the exile of dissidents during the Hamidian era. This section pays close attention to the synergistic role of an "Ottoman-Afghan" bureaucrat of Damascus, Mahmud Tarzi, following his emigration to Kabul in 1902. Part II explores the growth of a burgeoning community of Ottoman professionals who followed in Tarzi’s trail, including journalists, physicians, engineers, as well as military officers. By tracing their backgrounds and activities in Kabul, I introduce the complicated but formative role these late Ottoman subjects played in the establishment of varied modern institutions in Afghanistan at the turn of the twentieth century.