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Aga Khan V
50th Imam of the Nizari Isma'ili community From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Prince Rahim al-Hussaini Aga Khan (Persian: رحیم الحسینی; born 12 October 1971), known as the Aga Khan V (Persian: آقاخان پنجم, romanized: Āqā Khān Panjum), is a religious leader, businessman, and socialite best known as the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Nizari Isma'ili Muslims who claim descent from Muhammad through his daughter, Fatima, and his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. Today, the Qasimi Nizari Ismailis are the only Shi'i community who are led by a living and present hereditary Imam.[1]
He is the second of the Aga Khan IV's four children, and succeeded his father as per his testament, upon his death on 4 February 2025, at his palace in Lisbon. He is also known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imām (the present Imam) by his followers. He is the fifth Nizari imam to hold the title Aga Khan.[2]
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Early life and education
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Prince Rahim Aga Khan was born on 12 October 1971, in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the eldest son and second oldest of three children born to the Aga Khan IV (Prince Karim Al-Husseini) and his first wife Princess Salimah Aga Khan (née Sarah Croker-Poole), a British national.[3][4][5][6]
Prince Rahim was educated in the United States, receiving his secondary education at Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts (1990), and graduating from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature in 1995.[4][7][8] In 2006 he completed graduate studies in management and administration in Barcelona, Spain, at the IESE Business School University of Navarra.[7][9]
Based in Geneva, Switzerland Prince Rahim has been actively involved for many years in the governance of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), where as of 2020 he chaired the AKDN Environment and Climate Committee.[10]
As of 2019, Prince Rahim sat on either the Board or Executive Committee for several of the AKDN's agencies and affiliated structures, including the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, and the Aga Khan University Foundation.[11]
In 2010, he established the Aga Khan Brown Workshop series at the Watson Institute.[12]
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Ascension to The Ismaili Imamat
The Ismaili Imamat is a hereditary office in succession from Hazrat Ali, the first Shia Imam, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, who was married to Hazrat Bibi Fatimat-az-Zahra, Muhammad's daughter and only surviving child.[13]
Pursuant to the passing of Aga Khan IV and the unsealing of his Last Will and Testament at The Diwan, Lisbon, Portugal, his eldest son, Prince Rahim al-Hussaini was named the 50th hereditary Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. In the historical tradition of Shia Ismailis, succession to Imamat is by way of nass (divine designation), it being the absolute prerogative of the Imam-of-the-Time to appoint his successor from amongst any of his male descendants.[14]
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Ismaili Community
The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, commonly known as the Ismailis, belong to the Shia branch of Islam. The Shia form one of the two major interpretations of Islam, the Sunni being the other. Ismaili Community is the second-largest Shiʿa community in the world. The Ismailis live in over 35 countries, mainly in Central, East and South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, North America and Australia, and number approximately 12 to 15 million.[15] Like the ummah (global Muslim community) as a whole, the Ismailis represent a rich diversity of cultures, languages and nationalities. Ismaili traditions fall within four broad geographic and ethnographic groups: Arab, Persian, Central Asian, and South Asian. Settlements in Africa comprise primarily Ismailis of South Asian origins, while recent settlements in the West come from all these traditions.[16]
The Ismailis are the only Shi'i community who are led by a living and present hereditary Imam.[1] The Ismailis refer to the Aga Khan V by the title “Mawlānā Hazar Imām (the present Imam).”[15][2]
Personal life
Prince Rahim married Kendra Irene Spears on 31 August 2013 in Geneva.[17] They have two children: Prince Irfan (b. 11 April 2015)[18] and Prince Sinan (b. 2 January 2017).[19] In 2019, he bought a house in Unstad in Vestvågøy Municipality, Norway.[20][21] The couple divorced in February 2022.[22]
Titles, styles and honours
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The titles Prince and Princess are used by the Aga Khans and their children by virtue of their descent from Shah Fath Ali Shah of the Persian Qajar dynasty. The title was officially recognised by the British government in 1938.[23]
Author Farhad Daftary wrote of how the honorific title Aga Khan (from Agha and Khan) was first given to Hasan Ali Shah (The Aga Khan I) at the age of thirteen when he as the young Imam with his mother decided to go to the Qajar court in Tehran to obtain justice upon his father's death and was eventually successful. "At the same time, the Qajar monarch bestowed on him the honorific title (laqab) of Agha Khan (also transcribed as Aqa Khan), meaning lord and master...in due course simplified in Europe to Aga Khan". Daftary additionally commented, "The title of Agha Khan remained hereditary amongst his successors."[24]
The style of His Highness was formally granted to the Aga Khan V by King Charles III on 10 February 2025.[25] In accordance with long-standing tradition of the Ismaili Imams with the British Monarch and, to mark the accession of Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan as the fiftieth hereditary Imam of the Shi’a Ismaili Muslim community. Spoken style (second person, e.g. "His Highness" or "Your Highness")
Honours
Pakistan:
Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Pakistan (7 June 2024)[26][27]
Kenya:
Chief Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (CGH, 8 March 2025)[28]
Egypt:
- Symbolic Key to the City of Aswan by the Governor of Aswan (9 February 2025)[29]
Patrilineal descent
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References
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