Muslims also believed that the dead remained
conscious in the tomb and that their spirits could
move about in the world. This was especially
true for the saints—holy men and women who
could help people who sought their assistance.
People claimed to communicate with them in
their dreams, and many traveled to their tombs
as pilgrims to win their blessings. Such beliefs
are still widely held by Muslims today, although
proponents of conservative and reformist under-
standings of Islam argue that they have no basis in
the Quran and the teachings of mUhammad.
See also cemetery; FUnerary rites; interces-
sion; martyrdom; saint; soUl and spirit.
Further reading: Juan Eduardo Campo, “Between the
Prescribed and the Performed: Muslim Ways of Death.”
In Death and Religion in Contemporary Societies, edited
by Kathleen Garces-Foley (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe,
2004); Jane I. Smith and Yvonne Haddad, The Islamic
Understanding of Death and Resurrection (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1981).
Aga Khan (Agha Khan, Aqa Khan)
Since the early 19th century, Aga Khan has been
the honorific title used by the official leader (imam)
of the Nizari Ismaili branch of Shii Islam. The
title, which means “lord and master,” is hereditary,
and its holders claim to be direct descendants of
the prophet Muhammad’s family through ali ibn
abi talib (d. 661) and Fatima (d. 633) and their
son hUsayn ibn ali ibn abi talib (d. 680). The liv-
ing Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be
pure and sinless, and he is their supreme religious
aUthority. There can be only one Aga Khan at a
time; the present one is Prince Karim al-Husayni,
Aga Khan IV (b. 1936). His predecessors were
Hasan Ali Shah (d. 1881), Ali Shah (d. 1885), and
Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah (d. 1957).
In 1846, Hasan Ali Shah broke with tradition
and transferred his residence from iran to Bombay,
india. Here he received the recognition of British
authorities as the legal head of the Ismaili com-
munity in 1866, at a time when India was a British
colony. However, it was Muhammad Shah, Aga
Khan III, who really brought the Ismaili commu-
nity into the modern era during his 72-year reign.
Starting in the early 1900s, he reorganized Ismaili
communities in South Asia, the Middle East, and
East Africa. He encouraged them to publicly dis-
tinguish themselves from other Muslims in terms
of their beliefs and practices, instead of trying to
conceal them, which had been their custom in
order to avoid persecution. Using income from
donations given by his followers and from world-
wide business enterprises, he promoted religious
tolerance and funded public health and social wel-
fare projects for non-Muslims as well as Muslims,
including education for women. Aga Khan III also
supported the Indian independence movement
and promoted the cause of world peace, serving as
the president of the League of Nations in 1937. He
spent his last years in Geneva, Switzerland, and
was buried in Aswan, egypt.
Prince Karim al-Husayni, Aga Khan IV, has
continued his grandfather’s legacy of progressive
reform and philanthropy. Unlike his predecessors,
he received a Western education and obtained a
degree from Harvard University in Islamic history
in 1959. Since becoming the Aga Khan at the age
of 20 in 1957, he has directed a vast economic
network that, together with the Aga Khan Foun-
dation (1967), has financed health, education,
and rural development projects in South Asia,
Central Asia, and East Africa, as well as the found-
ing of the Institute for Ismaili Studies in London
(1977) and Aga Khan University in Karachi, paki-
stan (1985). The Aga Khan Program for Islamic
Architecture (based at Harvard University and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the
Aga Khan Award for Architecture have contrib-
uted significantly to the study and preservation
of the Islamicate architectural heritage around the
world as well to the development of new design
concepts based on Islamicate patterns.
See also architectUre; ahl al-bayt; east aFrica;
ismaili shiism; zaydi shiism.K 20 Aga Khan