The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, dies; son named successor

PARIS — 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, has died. 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 Tuesday in Portugal surrounded by his family.

His eldest son, Rahim Al-Hussaini, was named Wednesday as successor. The 53-year-old was designated as the Aga Khan V in his father’s will.

Prince Rahim studied comparative literature at Brown University and has served on the boards of various agencies within the Aga Khan Development Network, the spiritual leader’s main philanthropic organization, according to a statement the group released Wednesday. Prince Rahim has taken a special interest in the organization’s work to fight climate change and protect the environment, the statement said.

The late Aga Khan 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, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly and mixing them with ease.

Treated as a head of state, he was given the title of “His Highness” by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after the Aga Khan III, his grandfather, unexpectedly made him heir to the family’s 1,300-year dynasty leading 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 deals mainly with issues of healthcare, 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 healthcare had lacked for the poorest, including Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where he spent tens of millions of dollars on developing local economies.

His eye for building and design led him to establish an architecture prize as well as programs for Islamic architecture at MIT and Harvard. He restored ancient Islamic structures throughout the world.

Accounts differ as to the date and place of Prince Karim Aga Khan’s birth. According to “Who’s Who in France,” he was born on Dec. 13, 1936, in Creux-de-Genthod, near Geneva, Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller and Aly Khan.

The extent of the Aga Khan’s financial empire is hard to measure. Some reports estimated his personal wealth to be in the billions.

Ismailis lived for many generations in Iran, Syria and South Asia before also settling in East Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, and more recently in Europe, North America and Australia. They consider it a duty to donate up to 12.5% of their income to the Aga Khan 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 Aga Khan is survived by three sons and a daughter.

He will be buried in Lisbon. The date was not released.