Imam Shah Karim Al-Husayni was born on Sunday, the 13th of December, 1936, in Geneva, to Aly Solomone Khan and Princess Tajudowleh. From early on, him and his brother were under the care and training of their illustrious grandfather.

The Imamate of Imam Sultan Muhammed Shah is witness to a glorious period in Ismaili history, as portrayed by the illustrious presentation of the Jubilees, where the followers weighed their Imam physically against gold, diamond and platinum respectively, and subsequently placed these in humble submission to the Imam. The Imam graciously returned these in the sole endeavour of uplifting the economic and educational conditions of His Jamat.

Imam Sultan Muhammed Shah, the Aga Khan III, was born on Friday, the 2nd of November, 1877, in Karachi, Pakistan during the Imamat of his grandfather Imam Aga Hasan Aly Shah. He went to Europe in 1897, and spent most of his life there (Aziz, 1974).

Mowlana Imam Aly Shah had married five wives one after another, the third of which promised the Imam his successor, Sultan Muhammed Shah. Within a span of less than one year, his two eldest sons died, and the Imam himself fell sick and died also in the same year, vesting the Light of Imamate in his young eight-year old son, Aga Sultan Muhammed Shah (Aziz, 1974).

Mowlana Imam Ali Shah, the Aga Khan II, was born in 1830AD, in Mahalat, Iran. During the Imamate of his father, he himself had been appointed the Pir. During this time, he had travelled alongside the Imam and had visited the jamats all over India.

After the death of the King, Imam Hasan Aly Shah continued to enjoy the good pleasure of the newly enthroned grandson, much to the chagrin of the other political bodies. After such envy turned into rising political tension and armed conflict, the Imam was forced to leave Iran for good and travelled through Afghanistan to Sind, Pakistan, and finally choosing to settle down in Bombay, India. In due course, Imam Hasan Aly Shah was conferred the title of His Highness by Queen Victoria of Britain.

Mowlana Imam Hasan Aly Shah was born in Mahalat, Iran, in 1805AD. He would succeed his father, who had been murdered by a group of fanatics, at the young age of thirteen years. King Fatehali Qachar sentenced the assassins and their leader and became a great source of comfort to the young Imam and his followers. He gave the Imam his daughter in marriage and bestowed upon him the title of Aga Khan, meaning Lord of the Chiefs. He became known as Aga Khan I (Aziz, 1974).

Shah Fatehali ascended the throne of Iran in 1798AD. Imam Khalilillahi Ali had four sons and two daughters. He was murdered at the age of eighty years by some Ithnasheri fanatics in Yezd in 1817AD. He was buried in Najjaf, and was succeeded by his son Agha Shah Hasanali. His Imamat had lasted a period of thirty-nine years.