The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of world's Shia Ismailis, dies at 88

The Aga Khan, who became the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Shia Ismailis at age 20 as a Harvard undergraduate and built a vast material empire worth billions of dollars, has died. He was 88.

His Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community announced on Tuesday that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismailis, died on Tuesday in Portugal surrounded by his family.

His successor was designated in his will, which will be read out in the presence of his family and senior 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.

Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a student when his grandfather passed over his 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, moving between the spiritual and the worldly and mixing them with ease.

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 dynasty as leader of the Ismaili 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."

Development of local economies

A defender of Islamic culture, 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 organisation, 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.

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.

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.

Some reports estimated his personal wealth to be in the billions.

The Ismailis — a sect originally centered in India but which expanded to east Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East — consider it a duty to tithe up to 10 percent 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."

He is survived by three sons and a daughter.

The Aga Khan will be buried in Lisbon.