Recognising his brother as a potential contender for the throne, Habibullah went to lengths to placate and gain the support of Nasrullah. Upon Habibullah's succession to the throne he named Nasrullah commander-in-chief of the Afghan army, and also gave him the title of President of the State Council. Later in his reign, Habibullah named Nasrullah his heir to the throne in preference to Habibullah's own sons. By contrast, Nasrullah's younger brother Mohammed Omar Jar, and Mohammed's mother the Queen Dowager Bibi Hallima, both of whom were powerful political forces potentially of danger to Habibullah, were kept by Habibullah as "practically state prisoners" confined in private quarters under the guise of protection by a strong detachment of the Imperial Bodyguard (Mohammed Omar Jar having been stripped of his own personal bodyguard – and state positions – by Habibullah in 1904).