Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary Imam of the 15 million Nizari Ismailis scattered throughout Asia (particularly India and Pakistan), North and East Africa, the Middle East and the West. The scion of an illustrious and glamorous dynasty, he is one of the most prominent philanthropists in the world.
Nizari Ismaili Muslims, who are sometimes also known as Imami Ismailis, are considered to be a tariqa, or branch, of Shia Islam. The Aga Khan (a term that combines Tartar and Persian royal honorifics) claims descent from Muhammad through the Prophet's daughter Fatima and her husband, the Prophet's cousin Ali. Ali's descendants, known as the Fatimids, founded Cairo in the 10th Century.
In the 1830s, Aga Hassanaly Shah, the 46th Nizari Ismaili Imam, was granted the honorary hereditary title (previously a nickname) of Aga Khan by the Shah of Persia.
The current Aga Khan was born in 1936 in Geneva, and graduated from Harvard University in 1959 with a BA Honors Degree in Islamic history.
He assumed the Imamat in 1957 at the age of 21, upon the death of his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan, an Indian statesman and former president of the League of Nations. The Aga Khan’s father—a flamboyant playboy who raced cars, joined the Foreign Legion and was briefly married to Rita Hayworth—was passed over. He died in 1960 in an automobile crash in France.
Today, Prince Karim manages his many projects from an 18th-century chateau in Chantilly, France, and his home in Geneva, Switzerland. He is helped by his three U.S.-educated children and other members of his family.
Although less showy in personal habits than his father, the Aga Khan, who combines the roles of newspaper proprietor, yachtsman, financier and the owner of 600 racehorses with his widespread philanthropic work, still has his fair share of glamour. He has been married to a British model (after their divorce in 1995, she sold her jewels at Christie’s for $27.7 million) and to a German pop star. He uses the considerable wealth at his disposal (he commands one of the world’s largest personal fortunes) to support the Nizari Ismaili community and to underwrite his projects. The Aga Khan Development Network funds hospitals and schools, builds factories, hotels and eco-tourism resorts, and develops housing and water and sanitation systems in Asia and Africa. Last year, $230 million was spent on 140 projects in 30 countries. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, under which the Al Azhar Park project falls, aims to achieve “the physical, social, cultural and economic revitalization of communities in the Muslim world.”
In an interview in 1998, he emphasized his interest in supporting projects dealing with landscape architecture, public spaces, and parks. “In Islam,” said the Aga Khan, “concern for the natural world derives from the Faith, which in itself speaks extensively of God’s gift to man of the environment, and of the responsibility we have toward it. I believe that this is an area that needs a lot more work today than has been done in the past.” The Aga Khan was reportedly involved in all phases of the park’s planning, meeting often with park planners to discuss details of the project. Landscape architect Maher Stino says “he was on top of it personally, from the schematic to the master plan... until the material selection.”