A interesting religious figure and socialite’s life is examined by Tatler.
Prince Karim al-Husayni, popularly known as the Aga Khan IV, is 84 today, making him one of the most illustrious members of high society in the entire globe. He is regarded as the most powerful and wealthy leader in the world, as well as one of the wealthiest royals. He was born on December 13, 1936, and is the eldest child Prince Aly Khan had with his first wife, Joan Yarde-Buller, the third Baron Churston’s daughter.
He is the Pope of his flock, a man of legendary wealth, who lives in a world of magnificent châteaux, yachts, jets, and Thoroughbred horses. Few people are as deft at bridging so many gaps as he is—between the spiritual and the material, between East and West, between Muslim and Christian.
The Aga Khan has frequently joined royalty at state banquets, including Princess Margaret and the Prince and Princess of Wales, with whom he shared his Golden and Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Despite having no political jurisdiction, he functions as a virtual one-man state and is frequently greeted like a head of state when he travels. He travels around a lot in his personal jet and holds a British passport.
Prior to moving over the pond to Harvard to study history, Prince Karim, who was raised in Geneva, attended Le Rosey, a boarding school recognised for being among the most expensive in the world. After his grandfather passed away in 1957, he was thrust into the spotlight at the young age of 20 and eventually rose to the position of religious leader for all Ismaili Muslims worldwide. Since his sudden elevation to the Imaan, the Aga Khan has guided his Ismaili flock through the end of the Cold War, the end of colonialism in Africa and communism in Central Asia, as well as the ongoing unrest in the Middle East, where extremist Sunni jihadists label the moderate Ismaili as heretics.
In an effort to balance his venture capitalist efforts with his religious obligations, he told Vanity Fair that “an imam is not required to retreat from normal life.” On the contrary, he is expected to defend his neighbourhood and improve the quality of life there. The imamate doesn’t distinguish between world and faith. Karim’s great-great-grandfather was given the title Aga Khan in the 1830s by the Emperor of Persia when he wed the emperor’s daughter, which translates to “commanding chief” in a combination of Turkish and Persian.
It was unlikely that Prince Prince Karim al-Husayni would become the Aga Khan instead of his father, Prince Aly Khan. In his will, his grandpa stated that it was in the best interest of the Shia Muslim Ismailian Community for a young man to succeed him because of how the world had changed in recent years, especially the discoveries made in atomic science. He thus succeeded the 48th hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Muslims at the age of 21.
15 million Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, who are dispersed across 25 nations, are currently the Aga Khan’s most ardent followers. They refer to him as “the bringer of life” and see him as the bearer of Allah’s perpetual Noor (light of God). He is tasked with taking care of his followers’ material and spiritual needs, who are dispersed over more than 25 nations in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. However, all faiths gain from his work.
Prince Shah Karim, though, is better known to others for his enormous wealth. The Aga Khan is thought to have a net worth of more than £13 billion and is one of the top 10 richest royals in the world according to Forbes magazine. He owns a large number of racehorses, premier stud farms, a private island in the Bahamas, two Bombardier planes, the £100 million high-speed yacht Alamshar, named after one of his finest racehorses, as well as several estates throughout the globe.
His main property is the stunning mansion of Aiglemont, which is situated in the northern Parisian village of Gouvieux and is surrounded by water. The Secretariat, a contemporary office building that houses the Aga Khan Development Network’s command centre, is located on the property in addition to a château and a sophisticated training facility for roughly 100 of his Thoroughbred horses. It has 80,000 employees across 30 countries, making it an astoundingly enormous and successful corporation.
Princess Salimah Aga Khan, who took the name Begum Salimah Aga Khan after marrying the Aga Khan, was born when the latter wed Lady James Charles Crichton-Stuart in 1969. Previously, Sarah Frances was wed to Lord James Charles Crichton-Stuart, the fifth marquess of Bute’s son. Before getting divorced in 1995, the couple had three kids.
He wed Princess Gabriele of Leiningen in 1998, who took the name Begum Inaara Aga Khan at the ceremony. Gabriele was born in 1963 to German business parents who were Roman Catholics. She was 27 years younger than the Aga Khan. Aly Muhammad Aga Khan was born on 7 March 2000, two years after the Aga Khan’s marriage, making him a father once more at the age of 64.
On October 8, 2004, however, it was revealed that the Aga Khan and Begum Inaara would be divorcing after six years of marriage. The pair finally separated in 2014, with Princess Gabriele receiving a reported £54 million in settlement after a ten-year legal fight during which he was accused of having an affair with an air hostess.
The fourth Aga Khan has spent the last 50 years perfecting that work on the social and spiritual levels. His continuing success in the racing arena keeps him in the very top ranks of the bloodstock community. He won a record-breaking seventh Prix de Diane in 2012, France’s most illustrious horse race, at Chantilly, a 16th-century Domaine next to his estate that he had spent £40 million bringing back to its “princely splendour.”
The Aga Khan Development Network, meanwhile, oversaw initiatives as varied as repairing important architectural elements of the Old City in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and restoring the mud walls of the 14th-century Djingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu, the oldest earthen building in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as constructing a massive hydroelectric power network in Uganda that now provides the impoverished West Nile region with 18 hours of electricity each day where there had previously been His pal, James Wolfensohn, a former president of the World Bank, told Vanity Fair that he does a “bloody good job” combining the duty of increasing his money with that of promoting the requirements of his followers.
On the cusp of his 84th birthday, the Aga Khan has maintained his position after a long and spectacular reign, and his three eldest children are employed by his development organisation.
