Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the 49th hereditary Imam of the 15 million Nizari Ismailis scattered throughout Asia (particularly India and Pakistan), North and East Africa, the Middle East and the West. The scion of an illustrious and glamorous dynasty, he is one of the most prominent philanthropists in the world.
Nizari Ismaili Muslims, who are sometimes also known as Imami Ismailis, are considered to be a tariqa, or branch, of Shia Islam. The Aga Khan (a term that combines Tartar and Persian royal honorifics) claims descent from Muhammad through the Prophet's daughter Fatima and her husband, the Prophet's cousin Ali. Ali's descendants, known as the Fatimids, founded Cairo in the 10th Century.

In the 1830s, Aga Hassanaly Shah, the 46th Nizari Ismaili Imam, was granted the honorary hereditary title (previously a nickname) of Aga Khan by the Shah of Persia.

The current Aga Khan was born in 1936 in Geneva, and graduated from Harvard University in 1959 with a BA Honors Degree in Islamic history.

He assumed the Imamat in 1957 at the age of 21, upon the death of his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan, an Indian statesman and former president of the League of Nations. The Aga Khan's father