History in the making here as the Aga Khan recently signed an agreement with the nation of Portugal for the establishment there of the permanent Seat of the Imamat for at least the next 25 years.
The agreement grants diplomatic status to the Imamat, effectively treating the Ismaili religious establishment as a country in its own right.
Signed in early June and ratified at the start of July, the text of the agreement has been released here complete with signatures, courtesy of the Portuguese government.
Article 2 affirms the Portuguese Republic's acknowledgement of
"the legal personality and capacity of the Ismaili Imamat to act in international relations".
Perhaps the nearest functional equivalent is Vatican City, with the Aga Khan treated essentially as the Ismaili Pope, although there are clearly differences between the two.
The Seat, then, is to serve as "the global head office" of the Ismaili Imamat and affords the Aga Khan "[c]eremonial diplomatic treatment accorded in Portugal to foreign High Entities", with similar provisions for his family and staff.
Prince Karim has positioned himself, his religion and the Imamate in places of great influence. He has the ear of a number of state leaders informally and in 2014 was allowed to address the Canadian parliament, becoming the first ever faith leader to do so, highlighting the extraordinary relationship he's developed with that nation.
In many ways the partnership and commitment to unity expressed through the words and actions of the Aga Khan are to be welcomed. There's no doubt that his declared vision to overcome the "clash of ignorance" between Christian West and Muslim East is a decidedly good one.
With an official Seat and the friendship of so many world leaders, the influence of the Aga Khan and the Ismaili faith is only set to grow.
Originally published August 2015