500 years of doubt and concealment were brought to an end in the mid-18th century as the 43rd Imam of the Ismaili faith came out of hiding in south eastern Iran.
But it's with the 46th Imam, Hasan 'Ali Shah, that Ismaili history took a turn. Born 1804 in Iran, when he was 13 his father was killed by an angry mob. The Persian monarch himself oversaw the compensation. He gave land to the family, his daughter's hand in marriage to the new Imam and the honorary title of Aga Khan, (which this article on the Essential Ismaili concludes means "honourable chief lord").
The Ismaili star was set to rise further. Upset with his dismissal as regional governor in 1837, Aga Khan I revolted, was imprisoned, released, fought several battles, lost and eventually fled to Afghanistan in 1841.
Here, the history of the Ismaili Imams tangled with that of the British empire and monarchy, a tie that persists today. After the Aga Khan used his forces to aid the evacuation of British troops from Kandahar in July 1842 and resettled in India, the British government rewarded him with an annual pension and the appellation 'His Highness'.
British backing of the Aga Khan crested in 1866 when the Bombay High Court ruled in favour of His Highness, Aga Khan I and against dissenters who refused to recognise him as the head of their faith and subsequently paid no tithe.
For the first time a legal ruling declared the legitimacy of the Aga Khan as the spiritual head and heir in lineal descent to the Alamut Imams, recognised the status of the Nizari Khojas as Ismailis, established the rights of the Aga Khan to the Khoja tithe, and placed all the Nizari Ismaili communal property in his name and under his absolute control. The foundations for the Aga Khan dynasty had been laid, and this particularly amongst the Indian believers who would soon form the majority of the Ismaili population.
His Highness Aga Khan I died in April 1881 and was succeeded by his eldest son who, after only 4 years, died of pneumonia after hunting. His only surviving heir would oversee the explosion of the Ismaili faith onto the world scene.
Originally published August 2015