Prince Rahim al-Hussaini, a son of the Aga Khan IV, was named as his successor on Wednesday, inheriting the role of spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims around the world.
Rahim, 53, became the fifth Aga Khan and the 50th imam of the Nizari Ismaili branch of Shia Islam, whose leaders claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad. There are only 12 million to 15 million Ismailis, but the community has had an outsize impact through their institutions — among them hospitals and universities — and humanitarian work.
“My expectation would be that there is a continuation of that legacy, because it is ingrained in Islam and it is substantiated in these institutions,” said Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith America, who studied Ismaili institutions for his doctorate at Oxford University.
The new imam was named in the will, unsealed on Wednesday, of his father, Karim al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV, who died at age 88 on Tuesday. Through the Aga Khan Development Network, founded by his father, the new Aga Khan has focused much of his work on the climate crisis.
He will take over a vast portfolio. The family and Ismaili institutions are stunningly wealthy: Estimates of the fortune have ranged from $1 billion to $13 billion, with holdings ranging from airlines to real estate to newspapers.
The late Aga Khan rubbed elbows with royalty, owned racehorses and flew on private jets, and was widely admired for building institutions and doing philanthropic work, particularly in Asia and Africa, that made a point of benefiting people far outside the ranks of his own sect.
He was revered by his followers, and his death marks the end of a long era. Only those Ismailis old enough to be grandparents can remember a time before the late Aga Khan, who had led them since 1957.
The Ismailis, who are known for their acceptance of people of other faiths, operate hospitals, schools and other institutions, including the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. “It’s a cohesive vision that is based in Islam of mercy, uplift and pluralism,” Dr. Patel said.
Some of the vast fortune controlled by the Ismailis comes from a kind of tithe paid by followers, who live in about 35 countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
“A lot of people have gone to schools that the Aga Khan has set up,” said H.A. Hellyer, an international security studies expert at the Royal United Services Institute. “In that regard, I think they’ve generated a lot of good will.”
In Kenya, where he spent his early childhood, the late Aga Khan is remembered by some as a pioneer who nurtured the country’s modern-day press in the 1960s, after the tumultuous struggle for independence. He established the Nation Media Group, which closely documented the movement to end colonialism. It is now one of the largest private media outlets in East and Central Africa.
When the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin expelled people of Asian descent from his country in 1972, the Aga Khan IV helped arrange for many of them to be resettled in Canada.
“They have really been at the forefront of relief efforts and humanitarianism on behalf not only of Ismailis, but of all the people affected in the communities where they work,” said Jonah Steinberg, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina who wrote a book about the group.
The Ismaili faith dates to the 8th century, one of several branches of Islam arising from disagreements over the true succession of imams after the Prophet Muhammad. Its power peaked in its control of the Fatimid Caliphate, based in North Africa, in the 10th through 12th centuries, but it has been centuries since the imams were also temporal rulers. For most of their later history, Nizari Ismaili imams were based in Persia, with followers scattered across Central and South Asia, and the Middle East.
“They definitely live in parts of the world where there is sectarian complexity and pressure and challenge,” Dr. Steinberg said. “They are very careful to stay out of it.”
The new imam has powerful contacts, in the United States and abroad: He went to Phillips Academy and Brown University, where he studied comparative literature. He regularly meets with other leaders and attends global summits, like COP28.
In naming his son as his successor, the late Aga Khan has realigned the family with tradition.
His grandfather, the Aga Khan III, skipped over other descendants in 1957 to name a successor, pointing to the need for a young man’s mind-set to meet a rapidly changing world. At the time, his grandson was a 20-year-old student of Islamic history at Harvard.
Farah Mohamed and Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.
