Aga Khan, spiritual leader and philanthropist, dies at 88

The Aga Khan, a wealthy philanthropist and spiritual leader of the world’s 15-million Ismaili Muslims, has died in Lisbon, Portugal, at the age of 88.

Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini was named the 50th hereditary imam, or spiritual leader, on Wednesday after the will of his late father, the Aga Khan Development Network said.

The 49th hereditary imam was a jet-setting international figure who held British, French, Swiss and Portuguese citizenship. He poured millions of dollars into helping people in the poorest parts of the world. 

“If you travel the developing world, you see poverty is the driver of tragic despair, and there is the possibility that any means out will be taken,” he told the New York Times in a rare interview in 2007.

By assisting the poor through business, he told the newspaper, “we are developing protection against extremism”.

Prince Shah Karim Al Husseini was also a successful racehorse owner, with the thoroughbred Shergar among his most famous horses. The multimillionaire, perhaps billionaire, enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, and owned a private jet, a $200m superyacht and a private island in the Bahamas.

Estimates of his wealth vary from $800m to $13bn, with money coming from his family inheritance, his horse breeding business and his personal investments in tourism and property.

Prince Karim Al Husseini was born on December 13 1936 in Geneva and spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya.

He later returned to Switzerland, attending the exclusive Le Rosey School before going to the US to study Islamic history at Harvard.

When his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, died in 1957, he became the imam of the Ismaili Muslims, a branch of Shia Islam, at the age of 20.

His grandfather chose Karim as his successor over his flamboyant son — Karim's father Prince Aly Khan — who was once married to Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth.

As Aga Khan — derived from Turkish and Persian words to mean “commanding chief” — he was believed by Ismailis to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad through the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the first Imam, and his wife Fatima, the prophet’s daughter.

He was the fourth holder of the title, which was originally granted in the 1830s by the ruler of Iran to Karim’s great-great-grandfather when the latter married the ruler’s daughter.

The role included providing divine guidance for the Ismaili community, whose members live in Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and North America.

After his father died in May 1960, the Aga Khan initially pondered whether to continue his family’s long tradition of thoroughbred racing and breeding. But after winning the French owners’ championship in his first season he was hooked.

“I have come to love it,” he said in a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair. “It’s so exciting, a constant challenge. Every time you sit down and breed you are playing a game of chess with nature.”

His stables and riders, wearing his emerald-green silk livery, enjoyed great successes with horses such as Sea the Stars, which won the Epsom Derby and the 2,000 Guineas; and Sinndar, which also won the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same year, 2000.

But perhaps his most famous horse was Shergar, which won the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby and the King George, before being kidnapped in February 1983 from Ireland’s Ballymany stud farm.

A ransom demand was made, with the mafia, former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the IRA all suggested as suspects. No money was paid, and no trace of the horse was ever found.

The Aga Khan set up the Aga Khan Development Network in 1967. The group of international development agencies employs 80,000 people helping to build schools and hospitals and providing electricity for millions of people in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

He mixed his development work with private business, owning for example in Uganda a pharmaceutical company, a bank and a fishnet factory.

“Few people bridge so many divides — between the spiritual and the material; East and West; Muslim and Christian — as gracefully as he does,” Vanity Fair wrote in its 2013 article.

He was married twice, first in 1969 to former British model Sarah Croker Poole, with whom he had a daughter and two sons. The couple divorced in 1995. In 1998 he married German-born Gabriele zu Leiningen, with whom he had a son. The couple divorced in 2014.

Rahim is the eldest son from the first marriage. Born on October 12 1971, the US-educated Rahim now lives in Switzerland. 

Rahim has two sons through his marriage with former American fashion model Kendra Spears.

He has served on the boards of many agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network and chairs its environment and climate committee, according to the website.

“Prince Rahim has been particularly concerned with the AKDN’s drive to protect the environment and mitigate the effects of climate change,” it said, also highlighting his attention to the institution’s work “addressing the needs of those living in the greatest poverty”.

Update: February 5 2025
This story has been updated to include the new Aga Khan and more details. 

Reuters