The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Aga Khan

The title of Aga Khan (also Agha Khan), an honorific of Turkic-Mongol-Persian origins meaning “lord and master,” was bestowed

on the 46th Nizari Isma‘ili imam, Hasan ‘Ali Shah (1804–81), around 1820 by the contemporary Qajar monarch of Iran, Fath ‘Ali Shah (r. 1797–1834). Thereafter, Nizari Isma‘ili imams of Shi‘i Muslims retained Aga Khan as a hereditary title, with Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, 49th imam, acceding to this position in 1957. He leads this Shi‘i community officially designated as the “Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims,” who are dispersed through more than 30 countries worldwide. Rooted in the teachings of the early Imami Shi‘is, the Nizari imam’s office is known as the imamate (or imāma) because it represents his hereditary authority as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and her husband, ‘Ali (the first imam).

Hasan ‘Ali Shah succeeded to the Isma‘ili imamate upon the death of his father, Shah Khalil Allah, in 1817. By then, the Nizari imams had lived, as successors to their ancestors who ruled as the lords of Alamut, in different parts of Iran for more than seven centuries. Around 1820, Fath ‘Ali Shah Qajar appointed the youthful Nizari imam to the governorship of Qum, gave him one of his daughters in marriage, and bestowed on him the honorific title of Aga Khan. After a prolonged conflict with the Qajar establishment, the first Aga Khan settled permanently in India in the 1840s. Subsequently, he preoccupied himself with defining the distinctive religious identity of his followers, especially those in South Asia known as the Khojas. The Nizari Isma‘ilis frequently practiced taqiyya, or precautionary dissimulation, to protect themselves against persecution, disguising themselves variously as Sunnis, Sufis, Twelver Shi‘is, or Hindus. As a result, their true religious identity was often obscured and confused.

The first Aga Khan’s son and successor, ‘Ali Shah Aga Khan II, led the community for a brief four-year period. Upon his death in 1885, his eight-year-old son, Sultan Muhammad Shah (1877–1957), succeeded to the Nizari Isma‘ili imamate and became widely known, under his title of Aga Khan, as a Muslim reformer due to his prominent role in Indo-Muslim and international affairs. Guiding the Nizaris for 72 years as their 48th imam, Aga Khan III formulated numerous modernization policies and programs for his community while making further efforts to distinguish the Nizaris from other Muslims. The Nizari identity was specifically articulated in the constitutions that Aga Khan III promulgated for his followers, especially those in India, Pakistan, and East Africa. Reiterating the all-embracing authority of the imam and his office, these constitutions represented the personal law of the community, with articles on marriage, divorce, inheritance, and other matters.

Aga Khan III worked vigorously to reorganize his followers into a modern Muslim community with high standards of health, education, and social welfare, also paying special attention to the emancipation of Isma‘ili women and their participation in community affairs. To implement his reforms, Aga Khan III developed a network of national and regional councils for the Nizaris of South Asia and East Africa. According to Nizari teachings, the concepts of dīn (religion) and dunyā (worldly affairs) are both integral components of the social order, and Aga Khan III guided the religious and secular affairs of his followers, aiming to sustain a balance between these two domains of life. He often imparted his guidance through his speeches or farmāns (written edicts).

Aga Khan III designated his grandson, Karim, as his successor. Accordingly, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV succeeded to the imamate upon the death of his grandfather in 1957. Aga Khan IV continued and substantially extended the modernization policies of his grandfather, also developing a multitude of new programs and institutions of his own for the socioeconomic and educational benefit of his followers. At the same time, Aga Khan IV concerned himself with a variety of social, humanitarian, developmental, and cultural issues of wider interest to Muslims and citizens of Third World countries, especially Asia and Africa. With these objectives in mind, Aga Khan IV created a complex and global institutional network generally known as the Aga Khan Development Network.

Aga Khan IV closely supervised the spiritual and secular affairs of his community from his headquarters near Paris. He regularly visited his followers in different countries and gave them guidance by means of his own farmāns. He maintained the elaborate council system of communal organization developed by his grandfather and extended it into new regions in Europe and North America in recognition of the large-scale emigration of Nizaris from East Africa and South Asia to the West since the 1970s.

In 1986, Aga Khan IV issued a new universal constitution for all his followers throughout the world. The preamble of the new constitution, amended in 1998, affirmed all the fundamental Islamic beliefs and then specifically focused on the office of the imamate. It emphasized the imam’s ta‘līm, or authoritative teaching, which guides the Nizaris along the path of spiritual enlightenment as well as improved material life. Indeed, the new Isma‘ili constitution stressed the all-important teaching and guiding role of the “imam of the time” by affirming that, by the virtue of his office and in accordance with the beliefs of the Nizari Isma‘ilis, the imam enjoys full authority of governance in respect to all religious and communal matters of his followers. The office of the imamate thus provides the Nizari Isma‘ilis with appropriate guidance and organizational structures to contextualize and practice their faith under changing circumstances.