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Just like the scattered Ismaili Muslim neighborhood of some 15mn individuals of which he was the religious chief, the footprints of the Aga Khan IV, who has died aged 88, might be present in nearly each nook of the world.
A billionaire who poured cash into universities, hospitals and faculties from Tajikistan to east Africa, he rejected the title of philanthropist, usually tied to his identify, as a misnomer. Somewhat, he noticed his charitable deeds as a part of the duties that flowed from his position as an imam, or chief of the religion.
The Aga Khan IV was born in Switzerland as Prince Karim Al-Hussaini in 1936, the eldest son of famend playboy Prince Aly Khan and his spouse Joan, the daughter of a British baron.
In 1957, on the age of 20, whereas he was finding out Islamic historical past at Harvard College, Prince Karim inherited his title on the loss of life of his grandfather, the Aga Khan III. Together with his ascension, the Aga Khan IV grew to become the forty ninth imam of Ismaili Muslims, a Shia lineage that traces its descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
He was nothing if not worldwide. Born in Geneva, he grew up in Nairobi, was educated in Switzerland and died in Portugal. In between, he developed upscale tourism in Sardinia, bred horses in 15 international locations and even competed for Iran within the 1964 winter Olympics in Innsbruck.
Regardless of his international presence, he remained a relative enigma — an nearly legendary determine whose private life was protected by a wall of royal secrecy.
Those that met him in non-public, although, describe an urbane but self-effacing man, an enthralling host and somebody who not often stood on ceremony — even when he insisted that he and members of his wider household noticed the protocols he believed befitted his title.
“He was a really modest and interesting man, stunning for somebody of his stature and wealth,” mentioned Mo Ibrahim, the British-Sudanese billionaire who met him a number of occasions.
The Aga Khan was additionally an entrepreneur who constructed a profitable empire of banks, luxurious inns, insurance coverage firms and agro-industrial companies and who noticed no contradiction between the secular and spiritual components of his life. Wealth accumulation was not an finish in itself, he taught his followers, however a method of making the wherewithal to assist others.
He lived an opulent way of life, with a sprawling property outdoors Paris, a superyacht referred to as Alamshar and an island within the Bahamas amongst his many possessions. But Naguib Kheraj, an adviser and a trustee of the Aga Khan College, mentioned that it will be for his dedication to establishment constructing that historical past would bear in mind him.
“His grandfather sowed the seeds. However he was by no means organised on this very institutional method and scale,” he mentioned. “He has based universities, constructed faculties, constructed hospitals, instituted an award for structure — the vary of issues he has accomplished is extraordinary.”
Talking within the aftermath of his loss of life this week, members of his neighborhood spoke of the sense of unity, tolerance and function he had imparted in addition to the broader developmental affect that he had within the practically 20 international locations the place his charitable basis was energetic.
“He stored his neighborhood collectively,” mentioned Nasir Karmali, a storage proprietor and automotive seller in Nairobi, describing a social welfare system for Ismaili Muslims that ensured assist was at all times at hand when circumstances turned for the more severe.
Certainly one of his first investments in 1960, not lengthy after he grew to become imam, was within the press in Kenya, the place he had been despatched as a baby for his safety in the course of the second world struggle. He based the Nation Media Group, whose newspapers, together with the Day by day Nation and The EastAfrican, grew to become bastions of free speech in the course of the repressive years of Daniel arap Moi, president from 1978 to 2002.
“He helped to make the media a pillar of governance on this area,” mentioned Joseph Odindo, founding editor of the EastAfrican, who mentioned the Aga Khan’s media empire grew to become “a defend for individuals who have been persecuted from what was a one-party dictatorship”.
Horses have been his ardour. At his Aiglemont property outdoors Paris he educated thoroughbreds, a pastime that cemented a friendship with the late Queen Elizabeth II. One visitor to a three-day wedding ceremony he organised for one in all his sons remembers seeing a close to life-size bronze statue of the legendary Irish racehorse Shergar, which the Aga Khan had owned.
“What he did in horseracing is what he has accomplished in lots of fields: attempt for excellence,” mentioned his adviser Kheraj.
