The Aga Khan IV, who because the chief of the world’s Ismaili Muslims fused entrepreneurship and philanthropy in changing into one of many world’s wealthiest hereditary rulers, died on Tuesday in Lisbon. He was 88.
His demise was confirmed by his Aga Khan Improvement Community in a put up on X, the social media website. No trigger was given.
Urbane, cosmopolitan and sometimes media-averse, the Aga Khan — born Prince Karim Al-Hussaini — rejected the notion that increasing his private fortune would battle along with his charitable ventures. He mentioned his means to prosper complemented his obligation to reinforce the lives of Ismaili Muslims, a department of the Shiite custom of Islam with a following of 15 million individuals in 35 nations.
An imam, or chief of his religion, was “not anticipated to withdraw from on a regular basis life,” he as soon as mentioned after changing into the Aga Khan. “Quite the opposite, he’s anticipated to guard his group and contribute to their high quality of life. Subsequently, the notion of the divide between religion and world is overseas to Islam.”
His tasks included creating the island of Sardinia’s ritzy Costa Smeralda resort space, breeding thoroughbred racehorses and establishing well being initiatives for the poor within the creating world.
He took situation with descriptions of his way of life as lavish, although he traveled on his personal personal jets and a luxurious yacht, owned a non-public Caribbean island and shuttled amongst quite a lot of residences, together with Aiglemont, a sprawling property north of Paris that turned the headquarters of his growth community and a coaching heart for his horses.
“The function and duty of an imam,” he mentioned in a speech in 2006, “is each to interpret the religion to the group and likewise to do all inside his means to enhance the standard, and safety, of their each day lives.”
Regardless that he had no inherited realm within the method of different hereditary rulers, the Aga Khan’s fortune was variously estimated at $1 billion to $13 billion, drawn from investments, joint ventures and personal holdings in luxurious motels, airways, racehorses and newspapers, in addition to from a sort of Quranic tithe levied on his followers.
Unusually, the Aga Khan — the identify is usually translated as a mix of Turkish and Persian that means commanding chief — inherited his title from his grandfather the Aga Khan III, who bypassed his different descendants to call his grandson as his successor. Together with his assumption of the management as forty ninth imam of Ismaili Muslims in 1957, the Aga Khan IV took the reins of a Shia Muslim lineage that claimed descent from the Prophet Muhammad and imposed what he mentioned had been clear obligations on him.
On the time, he was a 20-year-old pupil of Islamic historical past at Harvard. That very same 12 months, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain conferred on him the nonhereditary title of His Highness, a mirrored image of the shut ties between the 2 dynasties, bonded in a shared fascination with superb horses.
In his will, his grandfather Sultan Mohamed Shah mentioned he had chosen to skip a era partly as a result of the “basically altered situations on the planet” — together with advances in atomic science — required a “younger man who has been introduced up and developed throughout latest years and within the midst of the brand new age, and who brings a brand new outlook on life to his workplace.”
Certainly, the Aga Khan IV confronted a number of modern-day crises afflicting his followers, who’re concentrated in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and East Africa. A lot of them confronted upheavals, just like the 1972 determination by the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin to expel Asians and the turmoil in Tajikistan following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Aga Khan was lengthy often called a well-connected particular person. As such, he was in a position to persuade Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau of Canada, whom he had met within the Sixties, to allow hundreds of Ismaili Muslims to to migrate to Canada after they had been compelled to depart Uganda.
His friendship with Mr. Trudeau mirrored an ambiguous relationship with Canada, the place he turned an honorary citizen in 2010. In 2017, Mr. Trudeau’s son, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, drew censure from Canada’s ethics commissioner after he and his household accepted the Aga Khan’s hospitality with an unannounced trip on the prince’s personal residence within the Bahamas.
The journey was deemed to characterize a battle of curiosity, as a result of the Aga Khan Basis had not too long ago acquired $38 million price of federal help from the Canadian authorities. For his half, the Aga Khan was formally exonerated.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Aga Khan’s followers within the mountainous Pamir area of Tajikistan had been amongst these embroiled in a ruinous civil battle within the Nineties towards the federal government led by Emomali Rahmon. In response, the Aga Khan accelerated investments in energy era and a cellphone firm in Tajikistan and later constructed well being care, microfinance and different services, in addition to the College of Central Asia in Khorog.
However the Aga Khan’s revered standing amongst Ismaili Muslims, dwelling primarily in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, reportedly stirred resentments and resistance among the many nation’s secular leaders, who sought to dam demonstrations of help for the Aga Khan.
Prince Karim Al-Hussaini was born in Geneva on Dec. 13, 1936. He was the eldest son of the famous playboy Prince Aly Khan and his first spouse, Joan (Yarde-Buller) Khan, a descendant of British aristocracy. His youthful brother, Amyn Aga Khan, was born the subsequent 12 months.
In 1949, their mother and father divorced, and Prince Aly went on to marry the American actress Rita Hayworth, with whom he had a daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan.
Recognized in his youth as Prince Karim, the Aga Khan grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier than attending faculty on the unique Institut Le Rosey in Geneva. In his late 20s, he competed for pre-revolutionary Iran in snowboarding on the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.
He went on to Harvard, the place he was finding out Islamic historical past when he turned Aga Khan IV on the demise of his grandfather.
“It was a shock,” he mentioned in an interview in 2013 with Self-importance Truthful journal, “however I don’t suppose anybody in my state of affairs would have been ready.”
His new standing, he mentioned, meant that the course of his life was henceforth set on immutable coordinates. “I used to be an undergraduate who knew what his work for the remainder of his life was going to be,” he mentioned.
A few of his followers ascribed divine standing to him, however he rejected such notions of godliness.
In 1969, he married Sally Croker Poole, a British mannequin and former debutante who turned Salima Aga Khan. The couple had three kids, Princess Zahra, Prince Rahim and Prince Hussain, earlier than they divorced in 1995. All three siblings went on to work within the Aga Khan’s organizations.
In 1998, the Aga Khan married Gabriele Thyssen zu Leiningen of Germany, who turned Inaara Aga Khan. They’d a son, Prince Aly Muhammad. The couple broke up a number of years later and spent a decade negotiating a divorce settlement mentioned to be price about $60 million when adjusted for inflation.
He’s survived by his kids; his brother, Prince Amyn Muhammad; his half sister, Princess Yasmin; and 4 grandchildren.
Over time, the Aga Khan’s enterprise ventures had been eclectic. He was a major mover within the Sixties in constructing the resort of Porto Cervo, full with a yacht membership and polo tournaments, as a part of the event of Sardinia’s northern Costa Smeralda as a playground for the superrich. He confirmed a liking for Maserati sports activities vehicles, however he additionally invested within the creating world in primary industries that made fishnets, plastic luggage and matches.
In Uganda, following the overthrow of Idi Amin and the later rise of Yoweri Museveni, he joined personal fairness giants just like the Blackstone Group in a $750 million hydroelectric scheme.
In 1960, Prince Aly, the Aga Khan’s father, died in a automotive crash at Suresnes, outdoors Paris, and his kids inherited his profitable equestrian empire, which included 9 farms in Eire and France. “The three of us discovered ourselves with this household custom none of us knew the very first thing about,” he advised Self-importance Truthful in 2013.
Since then, the Aga Khan had owned, educated and bred many champion horses. In France, his filly Valyra gained the celebrated Prix de Diane in 2012, to determine a brand new house owners’ file of seven wins. Within the Nineteen Eighties, his stallion Shergar was kidnapped in Eire and by no means seen once more. (He refused to pay a ransom demand.)
“I’ve come to adore it — it’s so thrilling, a continuing problem,” he as soon as mentioned of the equestrian enterprise. “Each time you sit down and breed, you’re enjoying a sport of chess with nature.”