Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, the 49th spiritual leader of the Ismaili community and known for his development work around the world, was laid to rest at a private burial ceremony in Aswan, Egypt on Sunday, the community said.

The Aga Khan IV’s successor Prince Rahim al-Hussaini Aga Khan V and his family were present, together with senior leaders of the community.

The Aswan governor facilitated and participated in a procession through the city to the banks of the River Nile. The late imam’s casket was transferred by boat in a ceremonial crossing to the mausoleum of Shia Ismaili’s 48th spiritual leader Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah. “The janaza (casket) was carried by hand to the hilltop mausoleum, where Shah Karim’s body was interred.”

After the ceremony, leaders present had the opportunity to express condolences to the family, and the Aswan governor presented the 50th spiritual leader of Ismailis with a “symbolic key to the City of Aswan as a mark of respect.”

New mausoleum will be constructed

“He will be interred in the mausoleum of his grandfather, Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, until a new mausoleum is constructed as his final resting place on land adjacent to the existing structure,” the community said in a statement.

Aga Khan IV passed away on February 4, surrounded by family in Lisbon, Portugal. He was 88.

Prince Rahim al-Hussaini Aga Khan V was named the 50th spiritual leader of the Ismaili community “following the unsealing of the Will of his late father, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan IV.”

On Saturday, the funeral ceremony for the late Ismaili imam was held at the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon.

More than 300 guests, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, former Spanish king Juan Carlos I, and Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, leaders of the Ismaili community and other dignitaries attended the ceremony. Family members, community leaders, Aga Khan University President Sulaiman Shahabuddin, and Habib Bank Limited Board of Directors Chairman Sultan Ali Allan were also present.

The funeral was a close event attended only by invited guests. The ceremony saw representation from the Ismaili community, including the 22 National Council presidents from around the world, including Pakistan.

The event was broadcast live on Ismaili TV, allowing followers of the late leader to partake virtually. Community centres and Jamaat Khanas were equipped to facilitate viewings of the ceremony, ensuring that the leader’s supporters could pay their respects.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, Ismaili community members gathered in the districts of Gilgit, Hunza, and Ghizer to see the ceremony.

The global Ismaili community, a sect of Shia Islam, consists of approximately 15 million followers residing in Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and North America.

Mausoleum in Aswan

Egypt was the centre of the Fatimid Caliphate, which was governed by Ismaili Imams during the 10th and 11th centuries, the community said in a statement about the place of mausoleum.

“The Aga Khan Development Network, founded by Mawlana Shah Karim, has been helping to improve the quality of life for communities in Cairo and Aswan for decades. One notable project has been the Al-Azhar Park in Cairo. Created by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, it transformed a 500-year-old mound of rubble into a lush green oasis,” it said.

Situated along the river Nile, Aswan is known for its natural beauty, with a mix of desert and lush greenery.

It is the location of the final resting place of Ismaili’s 48th spiritual leader Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah and his wife, Mata Salamat, “both of whom enjoyed warm relations” with the people of Aswan. “This relationship was sustained by Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, through the continuation of the development work of the Om Habibeh Foundation and later the Aga Khan Foundation.”

It added: “Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah’s mausoleum, constructed from limestone featuring a central dome with arched windows, is a landmark in Aswan. Its elegant architecture blends elements of traditional Islamic design with Mughal and Persian influences.”

Life of the Aga Khan IV

Prince Shah Karim Al-Husseini was born on Dec 13, 1936 in Geneva and spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya.

He later returned to Switzerland, attending the exclusive Le Rosey School before going to the United States to study Islamic history at Harvard.

When his grandfather Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan died in 1957, he became the imam of the Ismailis at the age of 20.

As Aga Khan — derived from Turkish and Persian words to mean commanding chief — he was the fourth holder of the title which was originally granted in the 1830s by the emperor of Persia to Karim’s great-great-grandfather when the latter married the emperor’s daughter.

The role included providing divine guidance for the Ismaili community, whose members live in Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and North America.

After his father died in May 1960, the Aga Khan initially pondered whether to continue his family’s long tradition of thoroughbred racing and breeding.

But he liked it after winning the French owners’ championship in his first season.

“I have come to love it,” he said in a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair. “It’s so exciting, a constant challenge. Every time you sit down and breed you are playing a game of chess with nature.”

His stables and riders, wearing his emerald-green silk livery, enjoyed great successes with horses like Sea the Stars, which won the Epsom Derby and the 2,000 Guineas; and Sinndar, which also won the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same year, 2000.

But perhaps his most famous horse was Shergar, which won the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby and the King George, before being kidnapped in February 1983 from Ireland’s Ballymany stud farm.

A ransom demand was made. No money was paid, and no trace of the horse was ever found.

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The Aga Khan set up the Aga Khan Development Network in 1967. The group of international development agencies employs 80,000 people helping to build schools and hospitals and providing electricity for millions of people in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia.

He mixed his development work with private business, owning for example in Uganda a pharmaceutical company, a bank and a fishnet factory.

“Few persons bridge so many divides — between the spiritual and the material; East and West; Muslim and Christian — as gracefully as he does,” Vanity Fair wrote in its 2013 article.

He was married twice, first in 1969 to former British model Sarah Croker Poole, with whom he had a daughter and two sons. The couple divorced in 1995.

In 1998 he married German-born Gabriele zu Leiningen, with whom he had a son. The couple divorced in 2014.