PARIS, France
The Aga
Khan, who became the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili
Muslims at age 20 as a Harvard undergraduate and poured a material empire built
on billions of dollars in tithes into building homes, hospitals and schools in
developing countries, died Tuesday. He was 88.
His Aga Khan Development
Network and the Ismaili religious community announced that His Highness Prince
Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili
Muslims, died in Portugal surrounded by his family.
His successor was designated
in his will, which will be read in the presence of his family and religious
leaders in Lisbon before the name is made public. A date has not been
announced. The successor is chosen from among his male progeny or other relatives,
according to the Ismaili community’s website.
Considered by his followers to
be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, His Highness Prince Karim Aga
Khan IV was a student when his grandfather passed over his playboy father as
his successor to lead the diaspora of Shia Ismaili Muslims, saying his
followers should be led by a young man “who has been brought up in the midst of
the new age.”
Over decades, the Aga Khan
evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the
spiritual and the worldly with ease.
While his death was announced
late in the day in Europe and the Middle East, ceremonies were already being
held Tuesday in Ismaili communities in the U.S. Condolences poured in online
from charity groups he supported, as well as the equestrian world, where he was
a well-known figure.
“An extraordinarily
compassionate global leader,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said
Tuesday, calling him a very good friend. “He will be deeply, deeply missed by
people around the world.”
Treated as a head of state,
the Aga Khan was given the title of “His Highness” by Queen Elizabeth in July
1957, two weeks after his grandfather the Aga Khan III unexpectedly made him
heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect.
He became the Aga Khan IV on
Oct. 19, 1957, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the spot where his grandfather
once had his weight equaled in diamonds in gifts from his followers.
He had left Harvard to be at
his ailing grandfather’s side, and returned to school 18 months later with an
entourage and a deep sense of responsibility.
“I was an undergraduate who
knew what his work for the rest of his life was going to be,” he said in a 2012
interview with Vanity Fair magazine. “I don’t think anyone in my situation
would have been prepared.”
A defender of Islamic culture
and values, he was widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim
societies and the West despite — or perhaps because of — his reticence to
become involved in politics.
The Aga Khan Development
Network, his main philanthropic organization, deals mainly with issues of
health care, housing, education and rural economic development. It says it
works in over 30 countries and has an annual budget of about $1 billion for
nonprofit development activities.
A network of hospitals bearing
his name are scattered in places where health care had lacked for the poorest,
including Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where he spent tens of
millions of dollars for development of local economies.
The extent of the Aga Khan’s
financial empire is hard to measure. Some reports estimated his personal wealth
to be in the billions.
The Ismailis — a sect
originally centered in India but which expanded to large communities in east
Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East — consider it a duty to
tithe up to 12.5% of their income to him as steward.
“We have no notion of the
accumulation of wealth being evil,” he told Vanity Fair in 2012. “The Islamic
ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a
privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society.”
The Ismaili community’s
website said he was born on Dec. 13, 1936, in Creux-de-Genthod, near Geneva,
Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller and Aly Khan, and spent part of his
childhood in Nairobi, Kenya — where a hospital now bears his name.
He became well-known as a
horse breeder and owner, and he represented Iran in the 1964 Winter Olympics as
a skier. His eye for building and design led him to establish an architecture
prize, and programs for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard. He restored
ancient Islamic structures throughout the world.
The Aga Khan lived at length
in France and had been based in Portugal for the past several years. His
development network and foundation are based in Switzerland.
The Aga Khan will be buried in
Lisbon. The date was not released.
He is survived by three sons
and a daughter and several grandchildren.
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