Aga Khan

This article is about the hereditary title. For the incumbent, see Aga Khan IV.

Aga Khan (Persian: آغا خان ) is the hereditary title of the Imam (spiritual and general leader) of the Ismaili Nizārī Muslims الطائفة الإسماعيلية, a sect of the Shi'a Ismaili branch of Islam which formed in 765 when the followers of Imam Ismail bin Jafir (721-755 C.E.) split away from the Musa Kazim (745-799 C.E.).

History

In 1818 the title of Aga Khan was bestowed upon Aga Hasan Ali Shah, the 46th Imam of the Ismailis, by Fath Ali (1771-1834 C.E.), the Shah of Persia. Etymologically the title combines the Turkish military title Agha with the Turkic, Mongolian and Persian/Pashto polyvalent title Khan, so it means roughly "Commanding Chief". In Persia's Qajar court protocol, Khan (and Amir) was commonly part of commanders of armed forces and provincial tribal leaders which ranked fourth in precedence amongst the eight title classes for non-members of the dynasty.

The Aga Khan was formally recognised by the British Raj in 1877 due to the help of the Aga Khan in suppressing a regional rebellion against the British, thus the Aga Khan became the only religious or community leader in British India granted a personal gun salute; all other salute dynasties were either rulers of Princely States, or Political Pensioners holding ancestral princely titles in states abolished by the Raj.

The Nizārī (Arabic النزاريون) (in Persian: اسماعیلیه) are a sect of Ismā'īlī Shīˤa Islām.

The Nizāriyya differ from the Mustaˤliyya in that they believe that the successor-Imām to the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir was his elder son an-Nizār. However, the Fatimid Regent appointed al-Mustansir's younger son al-Mustaˤlī as caliph and as a result, an-Nizār died in prison when he attempted to claim the throne by rebellion.

One prominent group of Nizāriyya were the "Assassins" of Alamūt under the leadership of Dāˤī Hassan as-Sabbaħ ((c. 1034-1124)).

The current Nizārī Imām is Prince Karim Aga Khan IV.

The Ismāʿīliyya and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muḥħammad through his daughter Fāṭima az-Zahra and therefore share much of their early history. However, a dispute arose on the succession of the Sixth Imam, Jaʿfar as-Sadiq. The Ismāʿīlī became those who accepted Jaʿfar's eldest son Ismāʿīl as the next Imam, whereas the Twelvers accepted a younger son, Mūsā-l-Kāzim.

In the face of persecution, the bulk of the Ismāʿīlī continued to recognize Imāms who secretly propagated their faith through Dāʿiyyūn "Callers to Islām" from their bases in Syria. However, by the 10th century, an Ismāʿīlī Imām, ʿUbaydullāhu-l-Mahdī Billāh, correctly known as ʿAbdullāhu-l-Mahdī, had emigrated to North Africa and successfully established the new Fatimid state in Tunisia. His successors subsequently succeeded in conquering much of North Africa (including highly-prized Egypt) and parts of Arabia. The capital for the Fatimid state hence shifted to the newly-founded city of Cairo, from which the Fatimid Caliph-Imāms ruled for several generations.

A fundamental split amongst the Ismāʿīlī occurred on the dispute of which son should succeed the 18th Imam Mustansir. Aḥmadu-l-Mustaʿlī, his younger son, was installed as Imam in Cairo with the help of Vizier Badr al-Jamali. However, Imam Mustansir's elder son, Nizar, contested this claim and was imprisoned; he gained support from an Ismāʿīlī dāʿī based in Iran, Hassan as-Sabba. As-Sabba is noted by Western writers to be the leader of the legendary "Assassins".

The largest part of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī community today accepts Prince Karim Aga Khan IV as their 49th Imam. The 46th Imam, Aga Hassan Ali Shah, fled Iran to South Asia in the 1840s after a failed coup against the Shah of the Qajar dynasty. Aga Hassan Ali Shah settled in Mumbai in 1848.

In 1866 a minority faction from among the Khoja Muslim community of Mumbai sought a court decree to deny the Aga Khan's authority and position as Imam (spiritual leader) of the community. They tried to re-cast the Khojas as a Suni community, and thereby take control of all property held in trust for the community. The Judge in this case, Sir Joseph Arnold, ruled that the Khoja Muslim community was Ismāʿīlī (and not Sunni), that the "Aga Khan" was its leader, that he was due the traditional tithes of the community, and that community property belonged to his Imamate. He described the community as a having been "converted to and throughout abided in the faith of the Shi'a Imami Ismailis and which has always been and still is bound by ties of spiritual allegiance to the hereditary Imams of the Ismailis."

History of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī community in the 20th century

Under the leadership of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, the first half of the twentieth century was a period of significant development for the Ismāʿīlī community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established in South Asia and in East Africa. Ismailis have marked the Jubilees of their Imāms with public celebrations, which are symbolic affirmations of the ties that link the Ismāʿīlī Imām and his followers. Although the Jubilees have no religious significance, they serve to reaffirm the Imamat's world-wide commitment to the improvement of the quality of human life, especially in the developing countries.

The Jubilees of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, are well remembered. During his 72 years of Imamat (1885-1957), the community celebrated his Golden (1937), Diamond (1946) and Platinum (1954) Jubilees. To show their appreciation and affection, the Ismā'īliyya weighed their Imam in gold, diamonds and, symbolically, in platinum, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to further develop major social welfare and development institutions in Asia and Africa.

In India and Pakistan, social development institutions were established, in the words of the late Aga Khan, "for the relief of humanity". They included institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Trust and the Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited which in turn assisted the growth of various types of cooperative societies. Diamond Jubilee Schools for girls were established throughout the remote Northern Areas of what is now Pakistan. In addition, scholarship programmes, established at the time of the Golden Jubilee to give assistance to needy students, were progressively expanded. In East Africa, major social welfare and economic development institutions were established. Those involved in social welfare included the accelerated development of schools and community centres, and a modern, fully-equipped hospital in Nairobi. Among the economic development institutions established in East Africa were companies such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust (now Diamond Trust of Kenya) and the Jubilee Insurance Company, which are quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange and have become major players in national development.

Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah also introduced organisational forms that gave Ismāʿīlī communities the means to structure and regulate their own affairs. These were built on the Muslim tradition of a communitarian ethic on the one hand, and responsible individual conscience with freedom to negotiate one's own moral commitment and destiny on the other. In 1905 he ordained the first Ismāʿīlī Constitution for the social governance of the community in East Africa. The new administration for the Community's affairs was organised into a hierarchy of councils at the local, national, and regional levels. The constitution also set out rules in such matters as marriage, divorce and inheritance, guidelines for mutual cooperation and support among Ismāʿīlīs, and their interface with other communities. Similar constitutions were promulgated in the South Asia, and all were periodically revised to address emerging needs and circumstances in diverse settings.

Following the Second World War, far-reaching social, economic and political changes profoundly affected a number of areas where Ismāʿīlīs resided. In 1947, British rule in the South Asia was replaced by the two sovereign, independent nations of India and Pakistan, resulting in the migration of at least a million people and significant loss of life and property. In the Middle East, the Suez crisis of 1956 as well as the preceding crisis in Iran, demonstrated the sharp upsurge of nationalism, which was as assertive of the region's social and economic aspirations as of its political independence. Africa was also set on its course to decolonisation, swept by what Harold Macmillan, the then British Prime Minister, aptly termed the "wind of change". By the early 1960s, most of East and Central Africa, where the majority of the Ismāʿīlī population on the continent resided (including Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Malagasy, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire), had attained their political independence.

This was the world in which the present Aga Khan acceded to the Imāmat in 1957. The period following his accession can be characterised as one of rapid political and economic change. Planning of programmes and institutions became increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in newly-emerging nations. Upon becoming Imām, the present Aga Khan's immediate concern was the preparation of his followers, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bold initiatives and new programmes to reflect developing national aspirations.

In Africa, Asia and the Middle East, a major objective of the Community's social welfare and economic programmes, until the mid-fifties, had been to create a broad base of businessmen, agriculturists, and professionals. The educational facilities of the Community tended to emphasise secondary-level education. With the coming of independence, each nation's economic aspirations took on new dimensions, focusing on industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture. The Community's educational priorities had to be reassessed in the context of new national goals, and new institutions had to be created to respond to the growing complexity of the development process.

In 1972, under the regime of the then President Idi Amin, Ismāʿīlīs and other Asians were expelled despite being citizens of the country and having lived there for generations. The Aga Khan had to take urgent steps to facilitate the resettlement of Ismāʿīlīs displaced from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and also from Burma. Owing to his personal efforts most found homes, not only in Asia, but also in Europe and North America. Most of the basic resettlement problems were overcome remarkably rapidly. This was due to the adaptability of the Ismāʿīlīs themselves and in particular to their educational background and their linguistic abilities, as well as the efforts of the host countries and the moral and material support from Ismāʿīlī community programmes.

Spiritual allegiance to the Imām and adherence to the Shīʿa Imāmī Ismāʿīlī ṭariqat (persuasion) of Islām according to the guidance of the Imām of the time, have engendered in the Ismāʿīlī community an ethos of self-reliance, unity, and a common identity notwithstanding centuries of being marginalized and persecuted by native and established societies. The present Aga Khan continued the practice of his predecessor and extended constitutions to Ismāʿīlī communities in the US, Canada, several European countries, the Gulf, Syria and Iran following a process of consultation within each constituency. In 1986, he promulgated a Constitution that, for the first time, brought the social governance of the world-wide Ismāʿīlī community into a single structure with built-in flexibility to account for diverse circumstances of different regions. Served by volunteers appointed by and accountable to the Imām, the Constitution functions as an enabler to harness the best in individual creativity in an ethos of group responsibility to promote the common well-being.

The Nizārī Ismāʿīlī community today

Like its predecessors, the present constitution is founded on each Ismāʿīlī's spiritual allegiance to the Imām of the Time, which is separate from the secular allegiance that all Ismāʿīlīs owe as citizens to their national entities. The present Imām and his predecessor emphasised Ismāʿīliyya's allegiance to his or her country as a fundamental obligation. These obligations discharged not by passive affirmation but through responsible engagement and active commitment to uphold national integrity and contribute to peaceful development.

In view of the importance that Islām places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual well-being of the individual and the quality of his life, the Imām's guidance deals with both aspects of the life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismāʿīlī Muslims, settled in the industrialised world, to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programmes. In recent years, Ismāʿīlī Muslims, who have come to the US, Canada and Europe, mostly as refugees from Asia and Africa, have readily settled into the social, educational and economic fabric of urban and rural centres across the two continents. As in the developing world, the Ismāʿīlī Muslim community's settlement in the industrial world has involved the establishment of community institutions characterised by an ethos of self-reliance, an emphasis on education, and a pervasive spirit of philanthropy.

From July 1982 to July 1983, to celebrate the present Aga Khan's Silver Jubilee, marking the 25th anniversary of his accession to the Imāmat, many new social and economic development projects were launched, although there were no weighing ceremonies. These range from the establishment of the US$300 million international Aga Khan University with its Faculty of Health Sciences and teaching hospital based in Karachi, the expansion of schools for girls and medical centres in the Hunza region, one of the remote parts of Northern Pakistan bordering on China and Afghanistan, to the establishment of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in Gujarat, India, and the extension of existing urban hospitals and primary health care centres in Tanzania and Kenya.

These initiatives form part of an international network of institutions involved in fields that range from education, health and rural development, to architecture and the promotion of private sector enterprise and together make up the Aga Khan Development Network.

It is this commitment to man's dignity and relief of humanity that inspires the Ismāʿīlī Imāmat's philanthropic institutions. Giving of one's competence, sharing one's time, material or intellectual wherewithal with those among whom one lives, for the relief of hardship, pain or ignorance is a deeply ingrained tradition which shapes the social conscience of the Ismāʿīlī Muslim community.

Imams

A list of the Ismāʿīlī Imāms can be found here.

Incumbent

Prince Karīm al-Hussainī became the present Aga Khan IV upon assuming the Imamat of the Nizari Ismailis on July 11, 1957 at the age of 20, succeeding his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan (Aga Khan III). His father, Prince Aly Khan, was a high-profile celebrity in the mid 20th century owing to his relationships with Hollywood stars, including a marriage to Rita Hayworth. He was passed over from the succession, and was later appointed Pakistan's permanent ambassador to the United Nations.

In his will, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah elaborated the conditions that led him to select his grandson as successor to the Ismaili Imamat:

"In view of the fundamentally altered conditions in the world in very recent years due to the great changes that have taken place, including the discoveries of atomic science, I am convinced that it is in the best interests of the Shia Muslim Ismaili community that I should be succeeded by a young man who has been brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age, and who brings a new outlook on life to his office."

Prince Karim Aga Khan IV is the 49^th Ismaili Imam, tracing their lineage to Ali, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, and his wife Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. The title His Highness was granted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1957, and His Royal Highness by the Shah of Iran in 1959.

Philanthropy

The Aga Khan, heir to the family fortune and a society figure, is founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the largest private development networks in the world. In Afghanistan, the AKDN has mobilised over $400 million in development projects, a large portion of which has come from the Network's own resources. AKDN continues to work with a variety of African and Asian countries to improve living conditions and promote education.

Equestrian

The Aga Khan has donated the trophy for the Aga Khan Cup. This is the most important competition held at the annual horse show of the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland every summer. It attracts competitors from all of the main showjumping nations and is carried live on Irish national television.

Its importance should not be underestimated within world equestrian sports as it is the foremost competition in the foremost event of one of the world's most important horse-breeding nations, Ireland. As a consequence "The Aga Khan" is one of the highlights of the Irish social calendar. It has the curious consequence that the Aga Khan's name is known, and affectionately so, by most of the population of Ireland though few would have heard of the Ismaili muslims or know their beliefs.

List of those who have held the title of Aga Khan

1. Aga Khan I = Hasan Ali Shah Mehalatee Aga Khan I (1800–1881), 46th Imam (1817–1881)
2. Aga Khan II = Ali Shah Aga Khan II (about 1830–1885), 47th Imam (12 April 1881–1885)
3. Aga Khan III = Prince Sultan Mohammed, (1877–1957), 48th Imam (17 August 1885–1957)
4. Aga Khan IV = Prince Karim Al Husseini (b. 1936), 49th Imam of the Ismailis (from 11 July 1957)

External links

• The Institute of Ismaili Studies
• The Aga Khan Development Network
• The World Bank
• WorldStatesmen- Religious Organisations
• RoyalArk- India & Qajar Persia
• Aga Khan article at SIPA (Columbia University)
• Brown University President Vartan Gregorian's introduction of the Aga Khan (1996 baccalaureate address)
• Interview on NPR, 2006 September 25: "Aga Khan Speaks Out on Understanding of Muslims"
• Graphical illustration of the sects of Shi'a Islam
• History of Imams from the Nizarī point of view.
• Institute of Ismaili Studies
• Aga Khan Development Network
• First Ismaili Electronic Library and Database

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