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

Prince Karim Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world's Shia Ismaili Moslems, married German-born Princess Gabriele zu Liningen at his country home outside Paris on Saturday, his office said.

It was the second marriage for both.

The wedding at the prince's Aiglemont estate in the Oise department north of Paris was conducted by Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris mosque.

French police sources earlier in the day identified Boubakeur as target of a Moslem fundamentalist death plot presumably not connected to the wedding. The prince, 49th hereditary Imam (religious leader) of the Ismaili community was born in Geneva on December 13, 1936, son of Prince Aly Khan and Princess Joan Aly Khan.

The Ismaili community numbers 12 to 15 million people in 25 countries, the prince's office said.

Liningen, 35, comes from a family of industrialists. She has a six-year-old daughter from her first marriage.

Karim's father was once married to actress Rita Hayworth. Unlike his flamboyant father, Karim, a graduate of Harvard University in the United States, has generally shunned publicity but is reputed to manage the same vast fortune his family has traditionally enjoyed.

He directs the Aga Khan Development Network which his office said was one of the world's largest private sector entities and is involved in health, education and rural development projects across South and Central Asia and East and West Africa.

The family tradition of involvement in social causes was launched by Karim's grandfather, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan.

Liningen is a consultant at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). She has converted to Islam under the Moslem name Inaara, derived from the Arabic word ``Nur'' (light).

The Aga Khan has three children, aged 24, 27 and 28, from his first marriage to English-born Princess Salimah.