Concept

Aga Khan III

Summary
Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III (2 November 1877 - 11 July 1957) was the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Islam. He was one of the founders and the first permanent president of the All-India Muslim League (AIML). His goal was the advancement of Muslim agendas and protection of Muslim rights in British India. The League, until the late 1930s, was not a large organisation but represented the landed and commercial Muslim interests as well as advocating for British education during the British Raj. There were similarities in the Aga Khan's views on education with those of other Muslim social reformers, but the scholar Shenila Khoja-Moolji argues that he also expressed distinct interest in advancing women's education for women themselves. Aga Khan called on the British Raj to consider Muslims to be a separate nation within India, the famous 'Two Nation Theory'. Even after he resigned as president of the AIML in 1912, he still exerted a major influence on its policies and agendas. He was nominated to represent India to the League of Nations in 1932 and served as President of the League of Nations from 1937 to 1938. He was born in Karachi, Sindh during the British Raj in 1877 (now Pakistan), to Aga Khan II and his third wife, Nawab A'lia Shamsul-Muluk, who was a granddaughter of Fath Ali Shah of Persia. After Eton College, he went on to study at the University of Cambridge. In 1885, at the age of seven, he succeeded his father as Imam of the Shi'a Isma'ili Muslims. The Aga Khan travelled in distant parts of the world to receive the homage of his followers, and with the objective either of settling differences or of advancing their welfare by financial help and personal advice and guidance. The distinction of a Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) was conferred upon him by Queen Victoria in 1897; and he was promoted to a Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list, and invested as such by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October 1902.
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