He was the owner of the Nation Media Group in East Africa that publishes the Daily Monitor in Uganda
There are many development projects owned by the Aga Khan Foundation including the Aga Khan Medical University and specialised hospital being constructed in Nakawa
The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims for almost seven decades, a man who combined moral leadership and philanthropic activities with a vast personal fortune, died Tuesday in Lisbon, according to a statement released by his spokesperson, Fayyaz Nurmohamed. He was 88.
“He was a unique historic figure,” said Arif Lalani, a former Canadian ambassador who ran the Aga Khan’s diplomatic service from 2016 to 2020, comparing the span and influence of his reign to that of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
That role began in 1957, when the 20-year-old prince was catapulted from his life as an undergraduate student at Harvard University to become the 49th hereditary imam of the world’s estimated 15 million Ismailis.
Though Ismaili communities are spread over two dozen countries, primarily in Asia, Canada became an important focus for the group during the Aga Khan’s reign, after the government of Pierre Trudeau welcomed more than 6,000 Ismaili refugees from Uganda who had been expelled by dictator Idi Amin in 1972.
The community now numbers more than 80,000 and includes many business and community leaders, notably Canada’s first Muslim justice minister and first Muslim Supreme Court Justice.
“There was a special relationship between Canada and his Highness,” said Mr. Lalani, who arrived in Canada from Uganda with his family as a small boy. The Aga Khan addressed a joint session of Parliament in 2014 and was instrumental in the construction of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and the establishment of the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa in partnership with the Canadian government.
“He was a visionary and an extraordinary person,” said Adrienne Clarkson, the former governor-general and chair of the Pluralism Centre’s executive committee, who presided over the ceremony appointing the Aga Khan an honorary companion of the Order of Canada in 2005. “There was nobody else like the Aga Khan.”
The Ismailis belong to a sect of Shia Islam that emerged from Persia and whose leadership fled to British-controlled India in the 19th century, where the group was revitalized. The group’s followers, inspired by successive leaders who trace their origins to the Prophet Muhammad, spread from their Asian roots to Africa, where they prospered as traders and professionals.
The Aga Khan was the top Ismaili spiritual authority, but also a globe-hopping statesman and very much a man of the material world, reportedly worth billions of dollars.
He lived a life of luxury as the owner of palatial homes, yachts and a Bombardier business jet, as an investor in business ventures around the world and as the proprietor of the Aga Khan Studs, one of the world’s leading breeders of thoroughbred horses. And his relationships – he married and divorced twice – were often the stuff of the celebrity press.Yet the Aga Khan never made any excuses for these seeming contradictions, blaming it on a Western misunderstanding of Islam.
“We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil,” he once said, saying the important thing was “how you use it.” He told another interviewer, “In the Muslim religion, there is no clear-cut division between the spiritual and the temporal. There are many passages in the Quran dealing with mundane problems. Was the Prophet himself not a businessman?”
The work of his ventures, including the Aga Khan Development Network, was facilitated by an Ismaili form of “zakat” where adherents donate 10 to 15 per cent of their income to the Aga Khan.
Shah Karim al-Husayni was born on Dec. 13, 1936, in Geneva, the eldest son of Prince Aly Khan and his first wife Joan Yarde-Buller, a British aristocrat. Prince Aly was a high-flying socialite and racehorse owner, who divorced and later married the actor Rita Hayworth.
Prince Karim spent his early years in Nairobi and later attended the Institut Le Rosey, an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland. In 1957, the prince’s grandfather, Aga Khan III, died and in his will designated Karim as his successor, skipping over Karim’s father, Prince Aly.
That thrust huge responsibility on the Harvard student, who became Aga Khan IV. He later admitted that the news had been “a shock,” adding that “I don’t think that anyone in my situation would have been prepared.”
In 1969, the Aga Khan married Sarah Croker Poole, a former fashion model who converted to Islam and changed her name to Salima. They had three children before divorcing in 1995.
In 1998, he married Princess Gabriele zu Leiningen, a onetime German pop singer and UNESCO consultant. They split after six years of marriage and the birth of a child. They finally divorced in 2014 after a messy court battle and a hefty cash settlement.
Canada’s close ties with the Aga Khan began in the 1970s, when crisis hit the Ismailis in East Africa. The Aga Khan called his friend, Pierre Trudeau.
“When Uganda’s Idi Amin decided in 1972 to expel Asians, I picked up the phone and Trudeau offered there and then that Canada would wish to help. His response was magnificent,” he recalled. Canada set up a special immigration office in Kampala to issue visas to Asian refugees, 70 per cent of whom were Ismailis.
“We would not have been Canadians if we had turned our backs on them,” Mr. Trudeau later said. A strong personal connection was forged. The Aga Khan was an honorary pallbearer at Mr. Trudeau’s funeral in 2000, alongside Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter and Leonard Cohen.
These ties later landed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in trouble after he took a family vacation in 2016 to the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas. Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson excoriated Mr. Trudeau for breaching the ethics code by accepting the free holiday and placing himself in a conflict of interest. She rejected his contention that the Aga Khan, whom he called Uncle K, was a close family friend, noting that they had had few interactions over the previous 30 years.
While the Aga Khan was often associated with the Trudeaus, he also maintained close connections with successive Canadian prime ministers, notably Stephen Harper, who called the Aga Khan “my dear friend.
” In 2008, the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamate, a sort of embassy, opened a stunning building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, adjacent to the headquarters of Global Affairs Canada. The Harper government also provided a $30-million grant for the establishment of the Aga Khan-led Centre for Global Pluralism, housed in the onetime quarters of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and Canada co-operated with the Aga Khan in overseas development aid programs.
Among his business ventures were hotels, telecoms companies and a hydroelectric project in Uganda. The Aga Khan Development Network, which he founded, was also active in social, cultural and educational projects, including the construction of the University of Central Asia in Tajikistan, home of a large Ismaili minority. He invested heavily in predominantly Ismaili regions, but that presence often led to political clashes with the central Tajik government.
In 2015, the Aga Khan’s Imamat moved its global headquarters from France to Lisbon after it came to an agreement with the Republic of Portugal that gave it quasi-diplomatic status, similar to that of the Vatican. There were considerable tax advantages as well, including the absence of a wealth or gift tax for expatriate property owners.
There was drama during the Aga Khan’s long career as well. In 1983, the thoroughbred winner of the Espom Derby, the stallion Shergar, was abducted from the Aga Khan’s stud farm in Ireland by masked gunmen, suspected to be linked to the Irish Republican Army. The Aga Khan refused to pay a GBP2-million ransom. The horse was never found and presumed killed.
In 1990, the Aga Khan quit the British Jockey Club, which governs horse racing in the country, after one of his winning horses tested positive for a banned substance. He moved his collection of 90 racehorses out of the United Kingdom, only ending the boycott in 1994 after British anti-doping regulations were changed.
The Aga Khan received a string of national honours, including Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) and the Grand Cross of France’s Legion of Honour and was bestowed with numerous honourary degrees, including from nine Canadian universities. He was designated His Highness by Queen Elizabeth in 1957.
The Aga Khan leaves his children, Zahra, Rahim, Hussain and Aly Muhammad; four grandchildren; his younger brother, Prince Amyn Muhammad; and half-sister, Princess Yasmin.
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.
