Aga Khan dedicated his fortune to philanthropy
Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, died on Tuesday in Lisbon, Portugal. He was 88. Khan, who was born Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini, assumed leadership at 20 while studying at Harvard and led the global Ismaili Muslim community for over six decades.
He dedicated his fortune to philanthropy, supporting healthcare, education, and housing in developing nations. His successor will be announced soon, the Aga Khan Development Network said.
Who Was Aga Khan?
- Aga Khan was the 49th hereditary Imam of the 15 million Ismaili Muslims, a branch of Shia Islam. He was considered a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, and his wife, Fatima. His title, Aga Khan, was given in the 1830s by the Persian emperor to his great-great-grandfather.
- Born on December 13, 1936, in Geneva, Switzerland, he spent his early years in Nairobi, Kenya. He later attended the prestigious Le Rosey School in Switzerland and studied Islamic history at Harvard University. He became the Imam in 1957 at the age of 20, taking over from his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, who chose him instead of his own son, Prince Aly Khan. Just weeks after becoming Imam, he was recognised as “His Highness” by the late Queen Elizabeth II in July 1957. In 1967, he founded the Aga Khan Development Network, which employs 80,000 people and works on building schools, and hospitals, and providing electricity in underdeveloped regions of Africa and Asia. He also funded hospitals in areas like Bangladesh, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan which had limited healthcare access.
- Under his leadership, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) funded several important restoration projects, including the Qutb Shahi Tombs complex in Hyderabad and Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi. He owned a pharmaceutical company, a bank, and a fishnet factory in Uganda. He also founded a prestigious architectural prize and established programmes for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard.
- He built a huge fortune, estimated between $800 million and $13 billion, from family inheritance, horse breeding, tourism, and real estate. He owned a $200 million superyacht, a private island in the Bahamas, and private jets. He was a highly successful racehorse owner, winning major championships. His most famous horse, Shergar, was kidnapped in 1983, and its whereabouts still remain unknown.
- He was married twice: first to British model Sarah Croker Poole in 1969, with whom he had three children before their divorce in 1995. In 1998, he married German-born Gabriele Zu Leiningen, with whom he had a son, before divorcing in 2014.