The funeral of Prince Karim Al-Hussaini Aga Khan IV, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili community, will take place on Saturday in Lisbon, according to community leadership. He passed away on Tuesday at the age of 88.
A private burial ceremony will be held in Aswan, Egypt, on Sunday, as confirmed in a statement released on Thursday. Naguib Kheraj, a senior adviser to the Ismaili community, shared that the funeral would be a “short and dignified” private event, not a large public gathering.
In honor of his passing, the Government of Pakistan has declared February 8, 2025, a national day of mourning, coinciding with the funeral. A Cabinet Division notification stated, “The prime minister has declared a day of national mourning in Pakistan on Saturday, February 8, 2025, on the occasion of the funeral of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan.”
Prince Karim’s eldest son, Rahim Al-Hussaini, aged 53, will succeed him as the Aga Khan V.
The Aga Khan IV passed away in Lisbon, surrounded by family, on February 4. His death marked the end of an era for the global Ismaili community, which comprises around 15 million followers across Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and North America.
Life of Aga Khan IV
Born on December 13, 1936, in Geneva, Prince Shah Karim Al-Husseini spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, before moving to Switzerland to attend the prestigious Le Rosey School. He later studied Islamic history at Harvard University in the United States.
At the age of 20, after the passing of his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, he became the 49th Imam of the Ismailis. The title of Aga Khan, granted in the 1830s by the Persian emperor to his great-great-grandfather, meant “commanding chief” and carried with it the responsibility of guiding the Ismaili community.
Following his father’s death in 1960, the Aga Khan considered continuing the family tradition of thoroughbred racing, which he eventually embraced. His racing stable achieved great success, with horses like Sea the Stars and Sinndar winning prestigious races. However, his most famous horse was Shergar, which won the Epsom Derby and other major races before being kidnapped in 1983, a mystery that remains unsolved.
In 1967, the Aga Khan established the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which today employs 80,000 people globally, working to build schools, hospitals, and provide electricity to millions in some of the world’s poorest regions.
Aga Khan’s work bridged spiritual and material divides, East and West, and Muslim and Christian, with Vanity Fair noting his grace in navigating these complexities.
He married twice: first to former British model Sarah Croker Poole in 1969, with whom he had three children before divorcing in 1995. In 1998, he married German-born Gabriele zu Leiningen, with whom he had a son before their divorce in 2014.
