Prince Rahim, a son of the Aga Khan IV, was named as his successor on Wednesday, inheriting the position of the non secular chief of hundreds of thousands of Ismaili Muslims around the globe.
The late Aga Khan, 88 — a billionaire who was recognized for each his entrepreneurship and his philanthropy — died on Tuesday. Prince Rahim was named as his successor after the unsealing of his will, in keeping with the Aga Khan Development Network.
Prince Rahim, who’s the Aga Khan V, will take the reins of a Shiite Muslim lineage that claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad. Ismaili Muslims, numbering 12 million to fifteen million, dwell in additional than 35 nations together with Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
His household and the Ismaili establishments are stunningly rich: Estimates of the fortune have ranged from $1 billion to $13 billion, with numerous holdings starting from airways to racehorses to newspapers. The Aga Khan IV was one of many world’s wealthiest hereditary rulers, with a few of the cash coming from a sort of tithe levied on his followers.
He was referred to as a jet-setter who bred horses and was associates with royalty. However the household and the Ismaili neighborhood are additionally well-known for working humanitarian establishments the world over, together with hospitals and universities.
In naming his son as his successor, the late Aga Khan has realigned the household with custom.
His grandfather, the Aga Khan III, left out different descendants in 1957 to call him as a successor, pointing to the necessity for a younger man’s mind-set to fulfill a quickly altering world. On the time, his grandson was a 20-year-old scholar of Islamic historical past at Harvard.
