In the meantime a major event was beginning to have its effect on the Ismailis in East Africa. This was the accession to the gadi of the Imamate of H.H. Sultan Muhammad Shah in 1885 at the age of eight. His redoubtable grandfather. the Agha Khan Hasan Ali Shah had died in 1881 to be succeeded by his son Agha Ali Shah who made a name for himself in sportsmanship and holiness and died after an Imamate of only four years. In the days of this, the forty-eighth Imam and third Agha Khan, the Ismaïlis of East Africa became the community we see today and to understand the community one must understand something of the policy of his Imamate and its effects in East Africa. This is of course a study in itself. One of the best guides to this is to be found in his firmans or commands, pronouncements. A careful analysis of some of the firmàns addressed to East Africa shows that His Highness had, from the time of his first visit to Africa in 1899, the idea of his community developping fully into the modern situation[17]. First he needed to make clear his own position as Imam; this remained changeless. His followers had to be led into an ever purer form of Islam and their whole lives reorganized to give them the happiness, education. and welfare their ma-bap (mother-father) desired for them.

It is never surprising in history to find strong central policy-leading to some secession. As we saw above, in Zanzibar as early as 1865 there were some five families of dissenters among the Khojas who did not support the authority of the Imam. It would be logical if they suffered the same rate as the barhai, the brethren in Bombay who had been in and out of excommunication for some lime and who were finally outcast after the case of 1865. It appears that those outcast earlier in India joined the Sunnis. In East Africa, according to oral evidence, the split did not come at once, and people restless about the Agha Khan’s position only gradually drifted away from the Ismailis[18]. Rupani says that the Imam sought to unite his people and shut out dissenters. There was trouble in Bombay. Cutch. Jamnagar. and Kathiawar. Those who accepted the Imam were separated from those who believed in a hidden Imam[19]. Things came to a head about the time of the Hajji Bibi case in 1905[20] Some of the Agha Khan’s relatives were claiming that they had a share by right (rather than out of generosity) to the property of the Imam and in the offerings made to him. The legal summary quaintly and tersely puts the decision as follows:

In East Africa those who cou1d not royalty remain under the Imam joined the Ithna ashari group, that is, the Shiah which accepted twelve Imams. In East Africa some of those thus ‘outcasted’ laid claim in the courts of the property that they had all used. In 1905 the Agha Khan took a power of attorney and named his legal agents in Zanzibar. He gave his people a Constitution and they now had a defined legal existence in the face of the Law. Since then other Constitutions have followed and in each the Agha Khan’s own community has been more and more closely delineated.

The Agha Khan carefully assisted his people to build up provincial. Territorial, and supreme councils. This meant that they had a highly efficient organization for collecting dues and for using money for the benefit of all. This also meant that they had a voice in their own affairs and could shape policy, while at the same time they received benevolent central direction.

His Highness cared greatly for the education of his people, believing that education was the key to the future. An educational organization was built up which gave the Ismailis one of the best systems in East Africa which incidentally was the first explicitly to insist that its doors were open to ail races and to implement this. His Highness gave careful thought and direction over the years to the welfare of his people. He insisted that girls should receive equal (if not superior) educational opportunity. His remark at Mombasa in 1945 is famous but only repeats something he had said often before. "If a father has two children, one a son and the other a daughter, if he can afford to educate only one of them, I would advise ...to educate the daughter first ...if a mother is educated she will be able to educate and bring up her children properly."

His Highness cared greatly for the health of his people and saw to it that excellent medical and hospital facilities should be put at their disposal, and at the disposal of the other communities amongst whom they lived. At the same time he insisted prevention was better than cure: good water, mosquito nets, fresh air, good food especially milk. are among the themes of his firmans. He urged his people to take healthy exercise and encouraged the setting up of sports clubs. He continually stressed the evils of alcohol, drugs, and rich food. He tried to combat luxurious and ostentatious living. Expensive feasting bas been cutout. Circumcision of male babies is carried out in the western way in infancy by a medical man. Marriage takes place quietly in the jamatkhana with strict regulation of the cost of the clothing worn and the size of the reception.

It is natural that the Imam's financial and commercial policy should bulk large in any account, however brief, of his Imamate. In Europe it is a common misunderstanding of Jesus saying about God and Mammon to suppose that God has no dominion over finance. The Ismailis do not make this mistake. Systematic use of money especially by way of offerings to the Imam is very close to godliness. His Highness saw to it that the money given to him and donated by him for the use of the community was looked after by properly constituted committees of honest men and women. He saw to it that the money was properly put to work and invested. The Jubilee Insurance Company which originated this way was a model of its kind. A building society and banking businesses were set up to enable people to own their own houses and businesses. His Highness gave advice and help not only to the great companies he set up but to individuals. He had a tremendous belief in Africa's future; he told his people to spread out, to settle down, to become fully members of their new countries and through initiative and service bring benefit to all[21].