Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Juan Eduardo Campo, “Between the 

Prescribed and the Performed: Muslim Ways of Death.” 

In Death and Religion in Contemporary Societies, edited 

by Kathleen Garces-Foley (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 

2004); Jane I. Smith and Yvonne Haddad, The Islamic 

Understanding of Death and Resurrection (Albany: State 

University of New York Press, 1981).

Aga Khan

 

(Agha Khan, Aqa Khan)

Since the early 19th century, Aga Khan has been 

the honorific title used by the official leader (

imam

) 

of the Nizari Ismaili branch of Shii Islam. The 

title, which means “lord and master,” is hereditary, 

and its holders claim to be direct descendants of 

the prophet Muhammad’s family through a

li

 

ibn

a

bi

 t

alib

 (d. 661) and F

atima

 (d. 633) and their 

son h

Usayn

 

ibn

 a

li

 

ibn

 a

bi

 t

alib

 (d. 680). The liv-

ing Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be 

pure and sinless, and he is their supreme religious 

aUthority

. There can be only one Aga Khan at a 

time; the present one is Prince Karim al-Husayni, 

Aga Khan IV (b. 1936). His predecessors were 

Hasan Ali Shah (d. 1881), Ali Shah (d. 1885), and 

Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah (d. 1957).

In 1846, Hasan Ali Shah broke with tradition 

and transferred his residence from i

ran

 to Bombay, 

i

ndia

. Here he received the recognition of British 

authorities as the legal head of the Ismaili com-

munity in 1866, at a time when India was a British 

colony. However, it was Muhammad Shah, Aga 

Khan III, who really brought the Ismaili commu-

nity into the modern era during his 72-year reign. 

Starting in the early 1900s, he reorganized Ismaili 

communities in South Asia, the Middle East, and 

East Africa. He encouraged them to publicly dis-

tinguish themselves from other Muslims in terms 

of their beliefs and practices, instead of trying to 

conceal them, which had been their custom in 

order to avoid persecution. Using income from 

donations given by his followers and from world-

wide business enterprises, he promoted religious 

tolerance and funded public health and social wel-

fare projects for non-Muslims as well as Muslims, 

including education for women. Aga Khan III also 

supported the Indian independence movement 

and promoted the cause of world peace, serving as 

the president of the League of Nations in 1937. He 

spent his last years in Geneva, Switzerland, and 

was buried in Aswan, e

gypt

.

Prince Karim al-Husayni, Aga Khan IV, has 

continued his grandfather’s legacy of progressive 

reform and philanthropy. Unlike his predecessors, 

he received a Western education and obtained a 

degree from Harvard University in Islamic history 

in 1959. Since becoming the Aga Khan at the age 

of 20 in 1957, he has directed a vast economic 

network that, together with the Aga Khan Foun-

dation (1967), has financed health, education, 

and rural development projects in South Asia, 

Central Asia, and East Africa, as well as the found-

ing of the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London 

(1977) and Aga Khan University in Karachi, p

aki

-

stan

 (1985). The Aga Khan Program for Islamic 

Architecture (based at Harvard University and the 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the 

Aga Khan Award for Architecture have contrib-

uted significantly to the study and preservation 

of the Islamicate architectural heritage around the 

world as well to the development of new design 

concepts based on Islamicate patterns.

See also 

architectUre

; 

ahl

 

al

-

bayt

; e

ast

 a

Frica

; 

i

smaili

 s

hiism

; z

aydi

 s

hiism

.

K  20