Aga Khan V

Rahim Aga Khan was born on 12 October 1971, in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the eldest son and second oldest of three children born to Shah Karim al-Husseini (Aga Khan IV) and his first wife Salimah Aga Khan (née Sarah Croker-Poole), a British national.^[4][5][6][7]

Rahim was educated in the United States, receiving his secondary education at Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts from which he graduated in 1990, before graduating from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature in 1995.^[5][8][9] In 2006 he completed graduate studies in management and administration in Barcelona, Spain, at the IESE Business School University of Navarra.^[8][10]

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Rahim has been involved for many years in the governance of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), where he chaired the AKDN Environment and Climate Committee.^[11]

In 2019, Rahim sat on either the Board or Executive Committee for several of AKDN agencies and affiliated structures, including the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, and the Aga Khan University Foundation.^[12]

In 2010, he established the Aga Khan Brown Workshop series at the Watson Institute.^[13]

Shah Rahim al-Hussaini, who had been designated successor by his father, was publicly announced as the 50th Imam following his father's death on 4 February 2025. The announcement took place after the reading of Shah Karim al-Husseini’s will at the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon. According to Nizari Ismaili tradition, leadership passes through designation by the previous Imam.^[14]

Rahim married Kendra Irene Spears on 31 August 2013 in Geneva.^[15] They have two children: Irfan (b. 11 April 2015)^[16] and Sinan (b. 2 January 2017).^[17] In 2019, he bought a house in Unstad in Vestvågøy Municipality, Norway.^[18][19] The couple divorced in February 2022.^[20]

The titles Prince and Princess are claimed by the Aga Khans and their children by virtue of their descent from Fath-Ali Shah of the Iranian Turkic Qajar dynasty. The title was officially recognised by the British government in 1938.^[21]

Scholar Farhad Daftary wrote of how the honorific title "Aga Khan" (from Agha and Khan) was first given to Hasan Ali Shah (the Aga Khan I) at the age of thirteen when he, as the young 46th Imam, went with his mother to the Qajar court in Tehran to successfully obtain justice for his slain father, Shah Khalil Allah III, as those involved in the murder were punished. "At the same time, the Qajar monarch bestowed on him the honorific title (laqab) of Agha Khan (also transcribed as Aqa Khan), meaning lord and master." Daftary additionally commented, "The title of Agha Khan remained hereditary amongst his successors." Fath-Ali Shah also gave his daughter, Princess Sarv-i-Jahan Khanum, in marriage to the young Imam.

The style of His Highness was granted to Rahim by King Charles III on 10 February 2025.^[22]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

• Pakistan:
  • Nishan-e-Pakistan (7 June 2024)^[24][25]
• Kenya:
  • Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (26 August 2025)^[26]
• Uganda:
  • Collar of the Most Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa (11 September 2025)^[27]
• Egypt:
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Aswan by the Governor of Aswan (9 February 2025)^[28]
• United States:
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Sugar Land, Texas by the Mayor of Sugarland (5 November 2025)
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Houston by the Mayor of Houston (5 November 2025)^[29]
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Dallas by the Mayor of Dallas (9 November 2025)^[30]
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Carrollton by the Mayor of Carrollton (9 November 2025)^[30]
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Euless by the Mayor of Euless (9 November 2025)^[30]
• Canada:
  • Symbolic Key to the City of Toronto by the Mayor of Toronto (30 March 2026)^[31]