Sultan Muhammad Shah al-Husayni, Aga Khan III, born in Karachi in November 1877 was 8 years old when he became Imam and was perhaps the most charismatic of the modern era.
The first 'modern' Imam rocketed Ismailis onto the world scene, largely through his extravagant lifestyle and high profile positions. No surprise then that an abundance of material exists on and by the third Aga Khan. The picture that emerges is of a man who was an enigma to his core. Even the smallest snapshot should demonstrate that much.
It was his social pioneering that secured the Aga Khans' standing with the British royal family. It was he who acquired international fame and fortune for owning, breeding and racing horses. He led the first Muslim delegation to press the cause of a Muslim state independent of India (what became Pakistan). He was president of the toothless League of Nations.
Under his leadership the Ismailis wrote their first constitution, organised their global community, became a modern and self-sufficient entity and moved away from assimilation, becoming a bold, independent religious group.
He pushed for educational and welfare reform, he led the charge for female emancipation, he advocated the loudest for religious tolerance.
Such was his prominence that he was even the subject of a German assasination attempt during the First World War.
Away from his religious duties, however, a different picture emerges. Known to “most of the royal families of Europe and that continent's foremost political figures and artists” (Daftary, The Ismailis – Their History and Doctrines, p.482), he was divorced 3 times and famously weighed in gold, diamond and platinum for his respective jubilees.
In one last enigmatic hurrah, he nominated his grandson as heir to the Imamate.
Originally published September 2015