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"Aga Khan" Is a Pet Name and not a Royal Title "Aqa" (also, Agha or Aga) is a word, said to be of Tatar origin, signifying
a dignitary or lord. The term was applied by the Turks to the chief of the janissaries. "Khan," now degraded by its
overuse, was a title of nobility, and was also used for a local ruler or official. "Aga Khan" is the adopted family name of a
hereditary spiritual leader (Imam) of the Shiah Nizari Ismailis. One of the many legends that have circulated about this
mysterious religious leader is that the title of "Aga Khan" was conferred by the Emperor of Persia upon the great-great-
grandfather of the present Aga Khan, for his dedicated services to the throne. On the contrary, Hassan Ali Shah
Mahallati Aga Khan I (1804-81), was an unsuccessful insurgent. A one-time governor of Kirman in Persia, he had
"proclaimed an independent government." In the opinion of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821- 90), a noted orientalist and
British spy; the attempt at rebellion against the reigning sovereign was "ridiculous."
In 1905, during a trial in the High Court of Bombay, Hassan's grandson, Aga Khan III, testified before Justice Russell that
"Aga Khan" was "not a title but a sort of `alias,' a pet name when Hassan Ali was a young man." The pet name was later
adopted as a hereditary family name by the succeeding Imams, who also claim to be the direct descendants of prophet
Muhammad (sas).
In his autobiography, `Ibrat-afza, written in Persian and published in Bombay, Hassan narrated his several unsuccessful
military encounters in Persia, in which he had been aided by the British Raj. According to Sir Richard Burton, he had
received weapons in quantity from John Company (British), including at least two heavy field pieces (cannons). In 1840,
accompanied by a few hundred horsemen, the "adventurous and romantic" Hassan (Aga Khan I), fled Persia. The
defeated political refugee, sought and found sanctuary under the protection of the British Raj. Upon his arrival in
Afghanistan, Hassan provided the mercenary services of his horsemen to the British army. In his memoirs, Hassan
spelled out his reasons for joining the invading army of the British Raj in the conquest of Afghanistan and Sind from
Muslim rulers. Hassan (a Muslim mercenary and so called direct descendant of the prophet!) referred to the British as
"the people of God" (khalq 'ullah), and to his role of acting as a secret agent for the British general Sir Charles Napier as
"for the sake of God's pleasure" (mahd-i rida-yi ilahi). Nearly a century later, Hassan's grandson, Aga Khan III, was
proud to record in his own Memoirs the mercenary services of his grandfather, which he described as "stout assistance"
rendered to the British Raj in their process of imperialistic expansion. "For these services and for others which he
rendered to Sir Charles Napier in his conquest of Sind in 1843-4, my grandfather received a pension from the British
Government." Hassan's ambitions of recovering his lost territories from the Shah of Persia, with the help of "the people of
God" (the British), were never fulfilled. However, he did receive a hereditary title of "Highness" which the present Karim
Aga Khan uses with pride.
"Mawlana Hazar Imam has inherent right and absolute and unfettered power and authority over and in respect of all
religious and Jamati matters of the Ismailis."
Below are the faithful reproductions of the Arabic transliteration, the English translation and the Gujrati translation
(transliterated) of the phrase "Aliyyullah", as they appears in the book of Ismaili Du'a, officially published by `The Shia
Imami Ismailia Assiciation for Africa, Kenya', 1963:-
The English translation: "There is no deity except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, Aly, the master of the
believers, is from Allah."
The Gujrati translation (transliterated) of the phrase "Aliyyullah": Please note the words within the parantheses are NOT
mine, they do appear in the book of Dua:
"Allah mahthi chhe (ane te ejh chhe)" which means; "Is from Allah (and is the same)".
Here is a further clarification of the enigmatic phrase and its paradoxical translations:
The phrase "Aliyyullah" is a combination of two words. "Aliyyun" and "Allah". When these two words are joined together,
the letter "n" becomes silent and the phrase is read as "Aliyyullah. The word "Aliyyun" translates "The Ali", and the word
"Allah" translates "The God". Hence, the phrase "Aliyyullah" means "The Ali, The God". In the Ismaili terminology it
signifies "The Aga Khan (The 49th Ali), The God".
The English translation which reads in the Du'a book "is from Allah" is just a smoke screen. The Gujrati translation with
its elucidation within the brackets, removes that smoke screen. Furthermore, the Arabic word for "from" is "min", which
does not appear in the Arabic text of the `Kalimah Shahadah'.
Note: In the next four years, it will be 100 years to the above Farman. Today, the trend among the enlightened Ismailis is
to revert back to the ancestral Tariqah of their forefathers. The one that was practised before the arrival of the Aga Khans
in India, which was the Sunni Tariqah of Islam.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), the founder of Pakistan, was also by birth an Ismaili Khojah. He and the most of his
family members joined the groups of the so called Dissident Khojah Ithna'ashris and remained so until their last days. Mr.
Jinnah's closest associate and a prominent Pakistani industrialist, Mr. M.A.H. Isphani, wrote: "Qaid-e-Azam (Mohammed
Ali Jinnah) told me that...when he was twenty-one, decided to quit the ranks of the Ismailis and join the Isna Ashari fold.
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...that he tried to persuade the Aga Khan himself to abandon his headship of Ismailis and to join the ranks of the Isna
Asharis, to which sect most of the members of the Aga Khan's own family belonged."
Prince Aly eagerly waited for the High Court's decree nisi to be made absolute. On May 11, 1936 the decree became
absolute and Joan, the daughter of a former ADC to the Viceroy of India and a mother of one male child, was free to
remarry. Within eight days, on May 18, Aly and Joan got married in a Town Hall of Paris. The couple got remarried at the
Paris Mosque. At the wedding an announcement was made that the couple would remarry in India. The idea of the third
marriage ceremony, to be performed before the followers, had to be abandoned because the Honourable Joan, who was
now Princess Joan, was already pregnant, records Mihir Bose.
In less than seven months of their marriage, Prince Joan gave birth to Karim. The historical records differ as to the
place and date of Karim Aga Khan's birth. A history book published in 1960 by the Ismailia Association for India records
Karim son of Aly S. Khan was born in Paris. Biographer Willi Frischauer records, he was born in Geneva, Switzerland.
Historian Mihir Bose records in his book `The Aga Khans', Karim was born on 17th December 1936. Ismailis all over the
world celebrate their Imam Karim Al-Husseini's birthday on December 13.
Karim, the "ultimate cosmopolite" was born in Europe, raised in Africa, educated in United States and presently resides
in France and Switzerland. He is half English aristocrat through his mother, one-quarter Italian through his father's
mother and one- quarter Iranian through his grandfather. On July 13, 1957, Karim the Harvard-educated bachelor, by-
passed his father and became the 49th Mawlana Hazar Imam of the Shiah Imami Ismailis and the fourth Aga Khan. The
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new Imam took an oath of allegiance from each of his followers that were present in Geneva for the ceremony.
The sprinkling of holy water upon the face of a dead Ismaili and forgiving of his/her sins is an important ritual called
"Chhantas". The ceremony is usually carried out before the burial, by a religious leader (Mukhi) of the local Jamatkhana
to which the individual belongs. When the deceased Aga Khan was alive he used to collect a small donation, sprinkle
the holy water and forgive the sins of his spiritual followers. The present Aga Khan has carried on the family tradition. In
Aswan (Egypt), one of the several "Mukhis" that were present for the burial of their late 48th Imam performed the
traditional ceremony. The Qur'an reveals; "...And who can forgive sins except Allah?" 3/135.
Strange it may sound, when the old Aga Khan was suffering from cancer, his wife Begum Ummeh Habibah sent a
message to Ismailis the world over, to pray every day in the Jamatkhanas for the recovery of their Imam to whom they
attributed "Divinity". When the body of the late Imam was to be laid to rest, another message came asking Ismailis the
world over, to assemble in their respective Jamatkhanas, precisely at the time when the body was to be lowered in the
grave in Aswan, and pray for the departed soul.
On December 13, 1986, Karim Aga Khan ordained a legally drafted Constitution from Geneva which gave him "inherent
right and absolute and unfettered power and authority over and in respect of all religious and Jamati matters of the
Ismaili Muslims." Further more, the Constitution also defines that Karim Aga Khan's "Farman" ("Any pronouncement,
direction, order or ruling made or given by Mawlana Hazar Imam") "shall prevail over this Constitution, and a later
Farman shall prevail over the earlier."
One has but to admit the fact that unlike the divided and disintegrated Islamic Ummah of our era, the Ismailia
community which is duty bound by the Ismailia Constitution has apparently and perceivably remained united in spite of all
the enigmas and allegations. But, on the other hand the comparison is between a tiny group of less than one and half
million Ismailis with the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of 1.2 billion Muslims that is spread from one end of the world to
another. The media project figure of between 15 and 18 million followers of Karim Aga Khan is a `ten fold exaggeration'
of the actual number.
Karim Agakhan resolves: "Imam is the mazhar (image/copy) of God"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
During the World War II, the late Aga Khan who was living in Europe had sent his two grandsons - Karim and Amyn, to
Kenya as a precautionary measure. When the war was over, the cautious Aga Khan would not let his grandsons travel
together in the same airplane. In the event one was to meet an accident, the other could carry on the genealogical chain
of the Ismaili Imamate. At the age of seven, Prince Karim who feared darkness, lead the Eid Salat (ritual prayer) of the
Jama'at in Nairobi, Kenya. It was a significant event for the followers. The vast majority of whom do not know how to
recite the Islamic Salat. Agakhani Ismailis recite "Du'a" instead of the Islamic Salat, facing any direction, in their
Jamatkhanas.
After completing his studies in Europe, Karim joined Harvard University in the United States of America. Karim did not
do very well in the subjects of Mathematics and Science so he switched to the Middle-Eastern History and Islamic
Studies. Before he graduated from Harvard in 1959, the young Prince Karim who had by then become the 49th Imam of
Ismailis and His Highness Aga Khan the fourth, gave a gift of $50,000 to the University. Harvard matched the student's
generous contribution with an equal amount and established a scholarship program.
Following the accession of Karim in 1957 as an Imam of the atomic age, the troubles began to erupt in the community.
In the parts of Punjab, Pakistan and almost all of Syria there was an internal revolt against the new Imam. The followers
refused to recognize the appointment of a grandson as their "Hazar Imam", when a designated "Wali-ahad" (successor to
the Imamate) and the eldest son of the late Imam was yet alive. These Syrian and Pakistani Ismailis recognized Prince
Aly S. Khan (father of Karim) as their 49th "Hazar Imam". Seeing that the split may widen and ultimately divide the
Agakhani Ismailis into two sects, Prince Aly decided to intervene on behalf of his son. Aly Khan went to Syria, met the
leaders of the revolting Ismailis and declared that his father had chosen his eldest son Karim as the next Imam. Aly Khan
also made a similar declaration when he met the leaders of the revolting Pakistani Ismailis in Karachi. Prince Aly died in
a car accident in France in 1960. He is remembered by many Ismailis for his generosity to accept the personal
humiliation without a note of protest. Some of his contemporaries expressed; if Aly - who was married to the leading
Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth, had curtailed his relationships with other glamorous girls and celebrities, namely Kim
Novak, Gene Tierney, Juliette Greco and Lise Bourdin Bettina, he would not have lost the throne of Imamate to his son.
In 1953, the late Aga Khan had appointed one of his distant cousin Amir Khalili as his new Wazir (Chief Minister) for
Iran. Four years later, when Karim acceded to the throne of Imamate, Wazir Khalili began pronouncing orders which
instructed the followers to revert back to Ithna'ashriyya persuasion - the faith of their ancestors and the one that was
devotionally practised by Aga Khan the first and his ancestors. Historian Farhad Daftary, also a distant relative of the Aga
Khan, writes in his book `The Ismailis, their history and doctrines';
"During the 1960s, several clashes occurred between Agha Khan IV and Shah Khalili. Agha Khan IV finally decided to
remove Shah Khalili... He sent two trusted Khoja Nizaris to Persia with a `firman' dismissing Shah Khalili and ordering his
followers to stop paying their tithes until further notice." Today, no one knows how many Ismailis are left in Iran and out of
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these how many follow the leadership of Karim Aga Khan.
In the early 1970s, the issue of fundamental beliefs of the Ismailis became a cause of animosity between the
community leaders from the Islamic States and the non-Islamic States. The subject at heart was the "Divinity" of Hazar
Imam. The former group preferred a more subtle approach that could be harmonized with the Islamic beliefs. The later
wanted to carry on with the traditional concept of "Aly, sahi (truly) Allah". When the Hazar Imam's highest ranking
international leader - the late Sir Eboo Pirbhai of Kenya, failed to resolve the issue from his headquarters in Nairobi, an
international conference of the world Ismaili leaders and high ranking Ismaili scholars was called in Paris. Karim Aga
Khan chaired the renowned International Conference held in March 1975. The report of the Resolutions passed at the
Paris Conference, under the chairmanship of Karim Aga Khan the 49th Hazar Imam, was published by the Ismailia
Association Central Co-ordination Office at Nairobi in May 1975. The concepts of Prophethood and the Imamate resolved
were as under:
The concepts of Nabuwah and Imamah: "These concepts to be explained and understood in the general perspective of
God's communication to man. The Imam to be explained as the `mazhar' of God, related to varying levels of inspiration
and communication from God to man."
Note: The Arabic word `mazar' means image; copy. Karim Aga Khan thus became an image/copy of God by the above
resolution.
The delegates from the Islamic States were disappointed. The concept if made public, was not easy to defend if
declared "heretic" by the Grand Mufti of Pakistan or the religous head of an Islamic State.
Since Karim's grandmother was an Italian, his mother and wife British, one can say that the ancestry of the Ismaili
Imams which originated from Arabia and had relocated in Persia during the post Fatimid period, was now being
established in Europe via British India. During his trip of British East Africa, in one of his religious pronouncements
("Farmans"), the 48th Ismaili Imam while talking of the straight path ("Siratul Mustaqeem"), advised his followers not to
"walk" upon the "talks" of Arabs and Moguls (Persian), who happened to be his progenitors. The reason put forward by
the anglicised Imam was; "Arabs are like donkeys" and "Moguls seek alms in every country", what will they teach you?
Aga Khan's followers in British East Africa, whose ancestral roots were in India, became anglicized and proudly adopted
the English names for their children, such as, John, Jimmy, Tommy, Sam and Mac. However, their family names
remained unchanged. They are mostly derived from the names of Hindu idols, such as, Ramji, Kanji, Samji, Govindji and
Shivji. Even today we find the same trend among the followers of Aga Khan.
Begum Salimah became a mother to Princess Zahra in 1970; Prince Rahim in 1971 and Prince Hussein in 1974. It is
not easy to guess the current financial standing of Karim. By one estimate, during his peak financial period, he was worth
1.5 billion dollars. Aga Khan receives, besides the returns from his personal investments, 12.5 to 25 percent of the gross
income of his spiritual followers and other religious contributions that run in millions. Almost all of these collections and
contributions are in cash (no receipts issued). Recently, there have been suggestions from the grass root levels that the
community could save millions in tax refunds from their respective governments if proper receipts were to be issued.
Furthermore, the Jamaat may not have to face the embarrassment of illegal "money-laundering" as in the recent past. In
1990, a few Ismailis were convicted for running one of the largest illegal money-laundering operation in the Unites States,
for the cash collections made in the Jamatkhanas.
In 1988, Karim Aga Khan threw a lavish party to celebrate the 18th birthday of his daughter Princess Zahra, in his
chateau near Paris. `Daily Express' of London reported that over 800 guests assembled to dine on caviare and smoked
salmon, drink vintage champagne and dance to Lester Lanin's band specially flown in from America. The fire display
alone was estimated to have cost pounds sterling 200,000.
Five years later, Karim Aga Khan was caught in the global recession for making a series of bad decisions concerning
his major business investments. His Italian holding company Fimbar was in deep financial trouble. Aga Khan had to give
up the control of a chain of nearly 36 most glamorous hotels in six countries. The holding company and the CIGA chain
of Hotels, which was running in deep red for the last number of years, owed nearly half a billion pounds to various
international banks. When they failed to pay the interest on the loan, the creditors moved-in in May 1993 to seize the
assets. That was no ordinary setback and public humiliation for the Aga Khan who was at one time dubbed "King of
tourism" by the `Economist'. The `New York Times' reporting the creditors action wrote; "Creditors Chip Away At Aga
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Khan's Lustre".
Karim Aga Khan has received several honours from many world governments and universities. The latest one of this
decade was the Commadeur Legion d'Honneur, France, for services to humanity in the third world by the network of his
international institutions and foundations. One of the major projects undertaken is The Aga Khan University and Hospital
in Karachi, Pakistan. The Aga Khan Foundation and the network of his institutions do receive very huge contributions (in
millions of dollars) from various Governments, international Consortiums, major Corporations and individual
philanthropists (Ismailis and non-Ismailis), especially from Europe, North America and Pakistan.
Karim Aga Khan, the recipient of the Jefferson Foundation Medal, is a frequent visitor to the White House since the
Kennedy era. In 1985, president Regan and the first Lady Nancy Regan stayed at the Aga Khan's villa in Geneva during
the historical summit meeting with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. One wonders why a religious leader of the
Muslim community, having such close relationships with the world's greatest power broker the U.S.A., has remained
noticeably silent on the issues such as the invasion of Afghanistan, Arab-Israel conflict, Gulf War and the ceaseless
embargo upon Iraq, crisis in Somalia, Kashmiris struggle, Algerian election, Serbian atrocities and the continuing
sufferings of Bosnian Muslims.
In the past a request was made to Karim Aga Khan by a source from Pakistan to financially assist the Muslim countries
in the purchase of military hardware. There is no evidence of the request being acceded to. A documentary made and
shown on the British TV, during the Afghan-Soviet war, showed that the followers of Aga Khan were proud to parade
before the camera crew the Soviet Tanks and armaments that the Soviet army had left with them. The leader of the
Afghani Agakhanis, Syed Jafferi - a hereditary chief Mukhi of the Imam who had lived in the United States for sometime,
bragged that the members of his Jamaat had repeatedly attacked, killed and captured the Muslim Mujaideens that were
passing through their valley - a strategic mountain pass - to fight the Soviet army. When the documentary was shown to
the leaders of the Mujaideens in Pakistan, he mentioned before the local media that once the Mujaideens have settled
their scores with the Soviets they will take care of Syed Jafferi and his fellow tribesman. In the meanwhile, Karim Aga
Khan and his followers are trying to relocate these Afghani Ismailis in Canada with the financial assistance of the
Canadian Government and the Jamaat in North America.
(to be continued)
Akbarally Meherally
Author:
`Understanding Ismailism - A Unique Tariqah Of Islam'
`Understanding The Bible through Koranic Messages'
`A History Of The Agakhani Ismailis'
`Understanding Jesus - factual perceptions'
`A Brief History Of The Agakhans'