Aga Khan IV

• 1. Introduction

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  Aga Khan IV, born Shah Karim al-Husseini, never appeared in gossip columns. Yet in 2013 Vanity Fair estimated his fortune at over US$13.3 billion. Forbes placed him among the world's fifteen richest royals, even though he held no political sovereignty and ruled no territory. The label referred only to his hereditary role as Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, not to any throne. This documentary asks how a man so private came to lead a worldwide religious community. It asks what he built with the resources at his disposal, and how he understood the link between faith, wealth and public service. It also asks what became of a famous racehorse that vanished from an Irish stud farm.

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• 2. Name and Inheritance

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  The honorific Aga Khan, a joining of Agha and Khan, was first given to Hasan Ali Shah when he was thirteen. His father had died, and the young Imam travelled with his mother to the Qajar court in Tehran to seek justice. They succeeded, and those involved in the murder were punished. The honorific then stayed in the family as a hereditary title. The Aga Khans also claim the titles of Prince and Princess through descent from Fath Ali Shah of the Persian Qajar dynasty. The British government officially recognised that claim in 1938.

  In 1957, Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, died, and his will named his twenty-year-old grandson as the next Imam. The will passed over the young man's father, Aly Khan, and his uncle, Sadruddin Aga Khan. Only once before in recorded Nizari Ismaili history had a grandson been named instead of a son. The will gave its reasons plainly. It spoke of "fundamentally altered conditions in the world" and of the discoveries of atomic science. The grandfather wanted a successor "brought up and developed during recent years and in the midst of the new age".

  Some in the community later framed the new Imam as an "Imam of the Atomic Age." That phrase has appeared in various publications, but it has no official doctrinal status. The will also advised him to consult his grandmother, Om Habibeh Aga Khan, on general matters during his early years in the role.

  Elizabeth II granted him the style His Highness in 1957. The British Crown had given the same style to Aga Khan III back in 1887. In 1959 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, granted the style His Royal Highness. That Shah was later overthrown in the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and al-Husseini preferred to use His Highness. His followers addressed him by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam. Installation ceremonies were held at several locations between 1957 and 1958, and he used them to speak about relations between ethnic and religious groups.

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• 3. Geneva to Harvard

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  Karim al-Husseini was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 13th of December 1936. He was the eldest son of Aly Khan and his first wife, Taj-ud-dawlah Aga Khan, formerly Joan Yarde-Buller. His mother was the eldest daughter of the British peer John Yarde-Buller, 3rd Baron Churston. He arrived prematurely but was declared healthy. His brother Amyn Aga Khan followed a year later, in 1937.

  In 1949 his parents divorced, partly because of his father's extramarital affairs. Shortly afterward Aly Khan married the American actress Rita Hayworth, and their daughter was Yasmin Aga Khan. Karim also had a half-brother, Patrick Benjamin Guinness, who lived from 1931 to 1965. Patrick was the child of Joan Yarde-Buller's earlier marriage to Loel Guinness, of the banking Guinnesses.

  World War II found Karim in Nairobi, Kenya, where private tutors taught him. He later spent nine years at the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, where by his own account he earned "fair grades." The Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted him, and he hoped to study science. His grandfather vetoed the plan. He went to Harvard University instead, joined The Delphic Club, and majored in Islamic history.

  His studies were still under way when his grandfather died. He later said he had to set aside plans for further academic study in order to take up his new responsibilities as Imam. He graduated in 1959, two years after ascending the Imamate, with a Bachelor of Arts in history, Cum Laude honours, and a varsity H for the Harvard Crimson men's soccer team.

  He was also a competitive downhill skier. He represented Great Britain at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1962, and then Iran at the 1964 Winter Olympics.

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• 4. Faith in Public Life

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  In a 1965 interview with The Sunday Times, he was asked about alcohol and answered in line with Muslim teaching. He argued that the power of thought separates people from animals, so anything that impedes it is wrong. "I have never touched alcohol," he said, calling the ban "not a puritan prohibition." He added, "There's no pressure being placed on me by my religion."

  In 1972, the Ugandan government under President Idi Amin expelled people of South Asian origin, including many Nizari Ismailis. They were given 90 days to leave the country. Karim al-Husseini contacted the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, and Canada accepted a significant number of the displaced Ismailis. He also coordinated resettlement for Ismailis displaced from Tanzania, Kenya and Myanmar, mostly in Asia, Europe and North America. Most early problems were overcome rapidly. The newcomers' educational backgrounds and high literacy helped, as did the efforts of host countries and community programmes.

  A constitution for the Nizari Ismaili community came in 1986, promulgated by al-Husseini and amended in 1998. It outlines the governance structure and the role of the Imam. He described that role as joining religious interpretation with attention to the social welfare of the community. He encouraged members in industrialised countries to support development initiatives in regions with large Ismaili populations. He also stressed engagement between Ismaili communities and the wider societies around them.

  The 2004 Amman Message addressed the place of the various denominations of Islam within the Muslim community, and he was among its Shia signatories. Two years later, a lecture by Pope Benedict XVI set off a controversy. Al-Husseini voiced concern over deteriorating relations between religions and suggested the moment offered a chance for dialogue about religion and reason. In 2014 he became the first faith leader to address a joint session of the Parliament of Canada.

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• 5. The Development Network

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  The Aga Khan Development Network includes over 200 agencies and, by the latest available figures, about 80,000 staff. It operates mainly in developing regions, with a focus on parts of Africa, South and Central Asia and the Middle East. Its work spans health, education, culture, rural development, financial services and economic initiatives. Funding comes from members of the Ismaili community and from partnerships with governments and international organisations.

  Among its affiliates are the Aga Khan University, the University of Central Asia, the Aga Khan Foundation and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development serves as the for-profit arm. Service organisations in education, health, microfinance and infrastructure complete the picture.

  Focus Humanitarian Assistance, an affiliate, coordinates emergency response operations. Its past work includes relief after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

  Projects tied to the network or its partners reach across the map. They include the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa, and the Al-Azhar Park in Cairo. In Kabul there is the Bagh-e Babur restoration, and in Delhi the Sunder Nursery. The Delegation of the Ismaili Imamate also sits in Ottawa. A network of full IB residential schools is known as the Aga Khan Academies.

  In a 2006 public address in Germany, al-Husseini noted that outside observers often sort the network's work into philanthropy or enterprise. From the perspective of the Ismaili Imamate, he said, such activities belong to the Imam's institutional responsibilities and are not separate from his religious role.

  In 1977 he founded the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London and chaired its board of governors. He served as a vice-president of the Royal Commonwealth Society until 2025. In March 2019, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, named him Global Founding Patron of the Prince's Trust Group. According to the organisation, support linked to that role contributed to programmes reaching over 30,000 young people between 2019 and 2025.

  The network is also a founding partner of the Paris Peace Forum, launched in 2018 on the centenary of the World War I Armistice. It serves as a strategic partner and takes part in the forum's executive and governance bodies.

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• 6. Architecture and Anniversaries

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  The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, established in 1977, is a triennial prize carrying US$1 million cumulatively. It recognises projects that pair contemporary design with social, environmental and historical context, and with the rejuvenation of Muslim societies. An independent jury is appointed for each award cycle.

  Two years later, in 1979, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. An endowment from al-Husseini supported it. The program offers courses, lectures and conferences on Islamic architecture and urbanism, and it supports research at both institutions. At MIT, students can complete a Master of Science in Architectural Studies with a focus in the program.

  The 25th anniversary of his Imamate, marked from 1982 to 1983, brought a cluster of projects. The largest was the US$450 million Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, with a Faculty of Health Sciences and a teaching hospital. Schools and healthcare facilities expanded in the Hunza region of northern Pakistan. The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme began in Gujarat, India.

  The 50th anniversary, observed from 2007 to 2008, included official visits to various countries and meetings with government officials. The Golden Jubilee Games, a sports event for Nizari Ismailis, was organised in Kenya and later continued in other locations. During a visit to Houston in Texas, he announced the Ismaili Center Houston.

  The 60th anniversary, from 2017 to 2018, was marked by concerts and arts festivals. In 2018, the Henrique de Mendonça Palace in Lisbon was designated as the Seat of the Ismaili Imamat.

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• 7. Horses and Business

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  In 1983, masked men took the Irish racehorse Shergar from the Ballymany stud farm in County Kildare and held him for ransom. Al-Husseini was the lead owner. He and the other co-owners refused to pay, and the horse was never recovered. He, law enforcement and members of the public suspected the Provisional Irish Republican Army, though the group denied involvement. In 1999, former IRA member Sean O'Callaghan claimed in his autobiography that the IRA had done it. Shergar had become a prominent symbol in Ireland, and the abduction prompted public backlash, even among people sympathetic to the republican cause.

  Horses were also a major source of income. Al-Husseini owned and operated the largest horse racing and breeding operation in France. His estate Aiglemont, in Gouvieux in the Picardy region, lies about 4 kilometres west of the Chantilly Racecourse. In 1977 he paid £1.3 million for the bloodstock of Anna Dupré, and in 1978 £4.7 million for that of Marcel Boussac. He was said to be France's most influential owner-breeder and a record winner of the Prix de Diane, sometimes called the French Oaks.

  His holdings spread across Ireland and France. Gilltown Stud near Kilcullen in Ireland and the Haras de Bonneval at Le Mesnil-Mauger were among them. In March 2005 he bought the Calvados stud farms, the Haras d'Ouilly in Pont-d'Ouilly and the Haras de Val-Henry in Livarot. Haras d'Ouilly had belonged to the Duc Decazes, François Dupré and Jean-Luc Lagardère. In 2006 he became majority shareholder of the French horse auction house Arqana.

  His horses won on the biggest stages. His unbeaten homebred filly Zarkava took the 2008 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. His homebred colt Harzand won both the 2016 Epsom Derby and the 2016 Irish Derby. On the 27th of October 2009 it was announced that Sea the Stars, regarded by many as one of the greatest racehorses of all time, would stand stud at Gilltown.

  His ventures reached beyond the turf. In 1959 he founded the Kenyan media company Nation Media Group, which owns the Daily Nation and Sunday Nation. In the 1990s he held a group of Italian luxury hotels called Ciga, charging US$400 a night. Through his for-profit AKFED, he was the largest shareholder in the Serena Hotels chain. Forbes had put his net worth at approximately US$1 billion in 2009, a figure far below the later estimate.

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• 8. Private Life and Legacy

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  On the 22nd of October 1969, a civil ceremony at his Paris home united him with Sarah Frances Croker Poole, a former British model. A religious ceremony followed on the 28th of October. She took the name Salimah Aga Khan. She had previously been married to Lord James Charles Crichton-Stuart, third son of the 5th Marquess of Bute. They had three children: Zahra, born on the 18th of September 1970, Rahim, born on the 12th of October 1971, and Hussain, born on the 10th of April 1974. By 1984 the couple were living separate lives, and their divorce was made public in 1994.

  On the 30th of May 1998, he married Gabriele Renate Thyssen at the Château de Aiglemont in Gouvieux. She took the name Inaara Aga Khan. Born in 1963, she had previously been married to Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, and they had a daughter, Teresa. Aly Muhammad Aga Khan, the couple's son, was born on the 7th of March 2000. They announced their intention to divorce in October 2004. A French court reached a settlement in September 2011, and the amount was finalised in March 2014.

  In 1967 he founded the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, and served as its president for several decades. The club became known for hosting international sailing events. His yacht Alamshar, 164 feet long, took its name from one of his racehorses, and media reports put its cost at about £100 million. His assets also included a private island in the Bahamas called Bell Island. In 2005 it was reported that he owned a Bombardier Global Express and another transcontinental jet. Yet he avoided most parties. In 1969 the singer Peter Sarstedt mentioned him in the song Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?

  Al-Husseini died aged 88 at his residence in Lisbon, Portugal, on the 4th of February 2025. His will named his son Rahim Al-Hussaini as successor, and the community regards this as the appointment of the 50th Imam, Aga Khan V. A private funeral took place in Lisbon on the 8th of February. Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas attended, as did Trudeau and former Spanish king Juan Carlos I. On the 9th of February he was buried in the Mausoleum of Aga Khan in Aswan, Egypt, where his grandfather also lies.

  Honours had gathered over the decades. They included the Order of Bahrain in 2003, an Honorary Companion of the Order of Canada in 2005, and a knighthood as Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. France made him a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour in 2018, and Canada granted him honorary citizenship in 2010. Racing honoured him too. France Galop renamed the Group One Prix d'Ispahan as the Prix Aga Khan IV. Its president, Guillaume de Saint-Seine, said the change was meant "so the racing world will remember this remarkable figure."

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