Key points:
• World leaders offer condolences
• UN chief remembers symbol of peace, tolerance and compassion
• Agha Khan’s successor to be announced as per his last will
PARIS, France: Agha Khan, the spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims passed away on Tuesday aged 88, leaving millions of followers in mourning across the world.
Prince Karim al-Husseini was regarded as a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, given nearly divine-status as the 49th hereditary imam of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam.
The Swiss-born philanthropist was bequeathed the title of Aga Khan aged 20 by his grandfather, who skipped the line of succession for the first time since the seventh century to appoint a “young man” of the “new age”.
The title of Agha Khan, derived from Turkish and Persian words to mean commanding chief, was originally granted in the 1830s by the emperor of Persia to Karim’s great-great-grandfather when the latter married the emperor’s daughter.
Leave a “better world”
Fuelled by his enormous wealth, he launched an apolitical secular development foundation in 1967 credited with raising literacy levels in 18 countries across South and Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Its work in Pakistan earned the Aga Khan the wrath of Sunni Taliban militants who accused the foundation’s schools of “brainwashing” men and women to stay away from Islam.
In his youth, he had dreamed of becoming an architect, before graduating instead from Harvard University with a degree in Islamic history.
He has also pursued a goal of educating the world about the richness of Muslim culture.
Islamic ethics
“I was born with Islamic ethics in a Muslim family. There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one’s own greed,” he told AFP in 2008.
“One of the principles of Islam is that on his deathbed every person must try to leave behind a better world.”
The Aga Khan has among other things helped finance the reconstruction of Bosnia’s Ottoman-era Mostar bridge, which was destroyed during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s.
One of the principles of Islam is that on his deathbed every person must try to leave behind a better world.” – The Agha Khan-IV, Shah Karim Al-Hussain
Preservation of Islamic art
He boasts an enviable collection of over 1,000 years of Islamic art, one of the world’s largest and most valuable, that he has put on display in his cultural centres in London, Lisbon, Vancouver and Dubai.
“We don’t do enough to illustrate to the peoples of our world the greatness of Islamic civilisations,” he told AFP in an interview in 2008 in Syria, after funding the restoration of Aleppo’s majestic citadel.
Social and business life
Just three years after taking on his religious responsibilities, he acquired a racehorsing empire assiduously built up by his grandfather and his father.
“The idea of entering into an activity that was in no way central to the Ismaili Imamat, an activity in which no member of my family — neither my brother nor my sister nor I — had any understanding, in itself raised a major question mark,” he said in a book published in 2011 celebrating 50 years in the racehorse business.
He will be, in the public’s eye, forever best remembered for the ill-fated Shergar, who clinched a mind-bogglingly easy win at the 1981 Epson Derby.
John Matthias, the jockey of the second horse Glint of Gold, actually believed he had won the race because he couldn’t see the winner.
Shergar was kidnapped two years later from the Aga Khan’s Ballymany Stud in Ireland.
Condolences pour in
World leaders, royals and heads of state worldwide including the UN chief, British King Charles, Pakistan’s prime minister and others expressed their condolences on the demise of the philanthropist whose life-long struggle changed the lives of millions across the globe.
I am deeply saddened by the news that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, has passed away. He was a symbol of peace, tolerance and compassion in our troubled world.
I express my deepest condolences to His Highness’s family and the Ismaili community. pic.twitter.com/VvXCrq8zPQ
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 4, 2025
King Charles is understood to be deeply saddened by the death of the philanthropist, who was a friend of both himself and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, and is in touch with the family privately.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered his condolences to a man he saw as an “honourary Canadian.”
The Aga Khan devoted his life to peace and prosperity for all. He worked across continents and cultures to resolve the world’s greatest humanitarian challenges: poverty, education, and gender inequality.
He was an extraordinary man of vision, faith, and generosity, and I know…
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 5, 2025
“His Highness the Aga Khan was an extraordinarily compassionate global leader, a man of vision, of faith and of incredible generosity,” Trudeau said during a Lunar New Year event in Ottawa.
“He will be deeply, deeply missed by people around the world, but particularly by the Ismaili community that is grieving tonight,” he continued.
“And I lost a very good friend — a friend of my father’s and a friend of mine — tonight, so I am sad, and we will all reflect on his extraordinary legacy for the coming days, weeks and, indeed, years.”