Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

The Ismaili sect, with its social and theologically liberal outlook, is probably the most progressive in the Islamic world. Spread over four continents its adherents are guided by their high profile Imam, Prince Karim Aga Khan.
Pranay Gupte profiles the life and philosophy of the unlikely patriarch. And his image of a new world order based on free enterprise.

THE CRITICAL TIME

AL MOSTAKBAL, CAIRO

DECEMBER 20, 1986

INTERVIEWED BY RIAD NAGUIB EL-RAIS

The Aga Khan

Who is this man called the Aga Khan? One question among dozens of others which invaded my mind while on my way to meeting that "man-riddle" who has pre-occupied the Western world for many years as no other Muslim leader did before him, and stimulated in it as much curiosity as romantic, imperialistic feelings since the days of the British Raj in India and the legends of the Maharajas and Sultans in the days of a thousand and one nights.

AH-Men have different reasons for serving humanity and their country. What are yours, Your Highness?

In a recent interview in New York, the Aga Khan answered question from LIFE reporter Margot Dougherty and Managing Editor Richard B. Stolley.

I don't think the public has a very good idea of what you do. Perhaps you could start with what we call a job description. The Imamate is a hereditary office, and the Imam is responsible for guiding the practice of the faith of the Ismaili community. In matters of faith he makes the decisions. In the matters if everyday activity, he has a large network of everyday institutions and structures that answer to him.

THE AGA KHAN'S VISION - To him, architecture is not the mother of the arts; it is the mother of civilization

The problem of the rural habitat is one of the most difficult problems'...
An interview held at Urumchi, Xinjiang, on Friday, October 30th, 1981 by Xinhua News Agency and representatives of the 'Xinkiang Gizetti' with Mawlana Hazar Imam, to elicit Mawlana Hazar Imam's views and comments on the holding in Beijing of the international seminar 'The Changing Rural Habitat' and on Mawlana Hazar Imam's subsequent visit in China.

What are the achievements of the seminar 'The Changing Rural Habitat'? and what is Your Highness' evaluation of these achievements?

Q: Your Highness, this is a very important Energy Conference. It's the first of its kind in the world, at least the first since 1963, What do you think will be the outcome of this particular Conference?

On Wednesday 18th February 1981, His Highness Prince Karim Agakhan was interviewed on television by Mr. Javed Jabber, a well known personality in television and advertising. Some important questions were spotlighted to seek Hazar Imam's assessment on them and we reproduce hereunder the interview ad-verbatim for our readers-EDITOR:
T.V. INTERVIEW

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1965 to 1977, heads the "Groupe de Bellerive," an independent commission studying world problems. While in New York in December 1980 to work with U.N. Secretary Kurt Waldheim on resolving the crisis in Iran, Prince Sadruddin was interviewed by WorldPaper about his views on Iran and about the 1980s.

Commenting on the situation in Iran, Prince Sadruddin said that it was understandable and it could have been foreseen.

Some time ago, Anne Matheson of the Australian Women's Weekly interviewed Begum Salimah in London just before Her Highness's visit with Mowlana Hazar Imam to Australia where they were invited as specia guests of honour for the 1979 Melburne Cup.

Here is a condensed version of the interview and a glimpse into the life of Begum Sahiba as wife, mother and worker.

At her Paris house, the oldest known building within the shadow of Notre Dame cathedral and once an abbey, photographer Alec Murry and I went up a circular stone staircase from the monastic entrance below street level.

Interviewer: Geoffrey Barker in Aiglemont

From the Sunday Nation, Nairobi, which republished the interview
His Highness the Aga Khan recently gave a candid interview to the Melbourne newspaper, “The Age,” on a variety of topical issues. He is due to visit the Australian city at the end of October for the climax of the spring racing carnival and to be guest speaker at a “Racehorse of the Year” presentation jointly sponsored by the newspaper and the VRC [Victoria Racing Club]. He was interviewed By Geoffrey Barker.

From The Age, Melbourne, as published by the Sunday Nation

Michael Charlton: Your Highness, how did the Ismaili sect acquire its importance in the first place?

Anthony Mann: (Commentary) One day in the twenties my father and a senior British official were strolling on the Nile bank near Cairo with a personage of world-wide fame. This was His Highness Sir Sultan Mohammed Aga Khan III, 48th Imam and spiritual leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Shia Moslems, whose services the the British Crown had earned him an imposing string of decorations, a sect on the Privy Council, and a salute of 22 guns.

Even at 7:15 on the morning after a banquet, with breakfast and an interview to be got through before an 8:30 meeting with Premier William Davis, the Aga Khan easily lives up to the promise of his own press release: 'A man who possesses in full measure the charm and wit shared with the rest of his family.'

November 13, 1978.

Q. As spiritual leader of the world's 20 million Ismailis, the Aga Khan is a direct descendant of Mohammed. As a political and a social leader He is a man of enormous wealth and responsibility. The Aga Khan is a friend of the Shah of Iran. Many of His followers live there. I asked Him in Ottawa yesterday what someone in his situation might do when a country such as Iran is thrown into the turmoil and crisis.

FACE TO FACE WITH THE AGA KHAN

L'EXPANSION NO.33

MARCH 1975

INTERVIEWED BY ROGER PRIOURET

(TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH BY DR.ABDUL SULTAN HASSAM)

I expected the Aga Khan to be a Parisian at heart, like his grandfather and father before him, with "high society" manners, living in luxury and idle for most of the time.

(L'Expansion, mars 1975)

J'imaginais - comme beaucoup de Français, sans doute - l'Aga Khan tel son grand-père et son père: une personnalité très parisienne, bien rodée aux charmes de la "High Society", logé dans un luxe riant et menant une vie joyeuse et en grande partie oisive.