His Late Highness Aga Khan IV founder of AKAA

The 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture: Shortlisted project highlights from Cairo Scene and AKDN

Aga Khan arrives for award ceremony in Lahore Pakistan
Flashback: Mawlana Shah Karim, His Late Highness Aga Khan IV, arrives for the inaugural ceremony of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture held on October 23. 1980, in Lahore, Pakistan. Photograph: AKDN / Christopher Little.

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His Late Highness Aga Khan IV speaking at AKAA ceremony in Tatarstan
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Late Highness Aga Khan IV, delivering his speech at the Aga Khan Award for Architecture ceremony, Kazan, Tatarstan, September 13, 2019. This was the last Award ceremony he attended in person. In 2022, at the Award Ceremony and seminars held in Muscat, Oman, he was represented by his brother, Prince Amyn and his children, Princess Zahra and Prince Hussain. Photograph: AKDN. Please read speech HERE.

2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Majara Complex and Community Redevelopment, Hormuz Island, Iran. Please click on the image for the Cairo Scene article.
A collage of 19 projects shortlisted for the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Please click on image for descriptions of the projects.
A collage of 19 projects shortlisted for the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Please click on the image for overviews and descriptions of the projects on the AKDN website.
Aga Khan the Manifest Light Ismaili Imamat Quran verse

His Highness the Aga Khan IV: Compassion, Empathy, Pluralism, and the Global Ismaili Community — Celebrating a Remarkable Servant

Aga Khan depiction Canadian Museum of Human Rights
A life-size depiction of Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, (d. February 4, 2025, aged 88) exhibited at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The exhibit appears with depictions of other Honorary Canadian Citizens on a floor dedicated to “Turning Points of Humanity.” Photograph (of the exhibit taken July 2017): Malik Merchant / Barakah.

Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, at his Takht-nishini, in Nairobi, Kenya, 1957. Photograph: 25 Years in Pictures, Volume 1, Islamic Publications, 1983, London.
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, at his Takht-nishini, in Nairobi, Kenya, 1957. Photograph: 25 Years in Pictures, Volume 1, Islamic Publications, 1983, London.
Aga Khan in Hunza
The Ismailis o Hunza accept the gracious deedar (glimpse) of Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, their 49th Hereditary Imam, as he visits the Princely State in the Northern Areas of Pakistan in 1960. Hunza was then governed by the Mir of Hunza, who is seen following the Imam. The kingdom was then abolished, coming under the direct rule of the Pakistan Federal Government in 1974. The entire Northern region is now known as Gilgit-Baltistan with Karimabad (or Baltit), being the capital of Hunza. Photograph: © Abdul M. Ismaily.

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Hunza welcome for aga khan
A sign etched on a mountain to welcome Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan to Pasu in the Hunza region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan; November 1987. Photo: Faqir Ullah Khan.

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Aga Khan in Badakhshan
In a setting of spectacular natural beauty, Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan addresses Ismailis and non-Ismaili Muslims in Ishkashim during his first historic visit to Badakhshan in Tajikistan; May 27, 1995. Photograph: The Ismaili.

Aga Khan Museum Toronto Open Doors 2023
A view of the Aga Khan Museum during the annual Toronto Open Doors event, May 27, 2023. Photograph: Malik Merchant/Barakah.

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Treasures at the Aga Khan Museum Toronto. From the upper floor, one can see permanent and loaned exhibits, such as the Wagner Garden Carpet, Burrell Collection, Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Malik Merchant / Simerg.

Baltit Fort restored by Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Divine mountain scenery around the Baltit Fort, in Hunza, Pakistan. The fort’s revitalization was completed in 1997 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture’s Historic Cities Programme. Photograph: © Paul Hilts.

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Manmohan Singh, the Aga Khan and Tata
The Humayun Tomb, the resting place of the second Mughal emperor and a precursor to the Taj Mahal, forms a backdrop in this picture taken during the inauguration ceremony on September 18, 2013 which was attended by the Chief Guest, the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, the Minister of Culture, Chandresh Kumari Katoch, Chairman Ratan Tata of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Prince Hussain Aga Khan. Photograph: Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India), GODL-India , via Wikimedia Commons.

Princess Zahra Aga Khan Birthday Tribute, Barakah., Malik Merchant
President Chissano of Mozambique and Princess Zahra Aga Khan look on as Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, addresses dignitaries at the foundation laying ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy Maputo on June 25, 2004. Photograph: The Ismaili USA, December 13, 2004.

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Prince Rahim Aga Khan in Mozambique, inaugration of Aga Khan Academy by Presidents of Portugal and Mozambique
Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi and Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa unveil the inaugural plaque of the Aga Khan Academy Maputo, as Prince Rahim, who succeeded as the 50th Imam on February 4, 2025, looks on. Photograph: Akbar Hakim/IPL

The University of Central Asia Naryn campus in the Kyrgyz Republic lies on the banks of the Naryn River, surrounded by the Tien Shan mountain range. Photograph: AKDN.

Aga Khan with Kyrgyz musicians at the Smithsonian Folklife Silk Roads Festival in 2002
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, meeting musicians from the Kyrgyz Republic. The troupe was brought to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival held in Washington, DC, in 2002 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Photograph: AKDN/Zahur Ramji

Stamps issued by the Sultanate of Oman to commemorate the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Aga Khan Music Awards, October 2022.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Bill Clinton with His Highness the Aga Khan at the first White House conference on culture and diplomacy which was convened by President and Mrs. Clinton on November 28th, 2000. The Aga Khan was among the distinguished panelists invited to advise the president, and secretary of state on the role of culture in foreign policy. Photo: Official White House Photo.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Bill Clinton with Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, at the first White House conference on culture and diplomacy convened by President and Mrs. Clinton on November 28th, 2000. The Aga Khan was among the distinguished panelists invited to advise the president and secretary of state on the role of culture in foreign policy. Photograph: Official White House Photo.

Kofi Annan and Aga Khan
(Late) Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, presents the Champion for Global Change Award to Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, at a special gala dinner held in New York on October 18, 2017. Photo: The Ismaili/Akbar Hakim/Mairaj Manji.

Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, during one of his visits to the site of the Al-Azhar Park, in Cairo.

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Al Azhar Park
In the 1980’s the Aga Khan turned his attention to a site in Cairo, where garbage had been dumped for more than 500 years and was nearly 25 feet deep. After more than 15 years of work masterminded by his Trust for Culture, his vision has transformed the derelict site into a sequence of formal gardens filled with groves of fruit and flowering trees, fountains and an artificial lake studded with a modern lakeside café and a central allee of royal palms lines a path that has views of Islamic Cairo’s minarets and domes. Atop the dump site sit three new sunken reservoirs that provide invisible succor and a children’s playground and other special features. Shown in the image are: the 1992 park site, Al Darassa municipal dump (top left); on going work in shaping the Al-Azhar Park site in 1999 (top right); and the completed Al-Azhar Park which was inaugurated in 2005. Photos: Aga Khan Trust for Culture via Archnet.

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Aga Khan and the British Crown, Prince Charles and Camilla at Al-Azhar Park, Barakah news
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, welcomes Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales, and The Duchess of Cornwall to Al-Azhar Park in 2006 at the beginning of their official 2-week to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India. Photo: AKDN/Gary Otte.

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Al Azhar Park Cairo, a Aga Khan Triust for Culture project
Al-Azhar Park — a boulevard walkway in a park! Photograph: © Muslim Harji.

Aga Khan and Norway
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, and Norway’s Minister for International Development, Ms. Hilde F. Johnson, sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the AKDN and the Government of Norway, to enhance collaboration on development issues and programmes in Africa, Central and South Asia; April 6, 2005, Oslo, Norway. Photograph: AKDN / Gary Otte.

Dr. Friedemann Greiner, Director and Chairman of the Jury (left), presenting the Tolerance Award 2006 to His Highness the Aga Khan as Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs (right), looks on. The Tolerance Award was established by Germany’s Evangelische Akademie Tutzing in 2000 and is presented every second year to an individual whose life work is committed to building greater understanding and tolerance between different cultures and traditions. During his laudatory address, Dr Steinmeier described the Aga Khan as a “fortress for democratic progress, as someone wishing to bring about sustainable, pluralistic, civil societies…We honour an exceptional man, we honour a huge friend of humankind, we honour a courageous visionary and we honour a person building bridges between societies,” Photo: AKDN/Zahur Ramji.
Dr. Friedemann Greiner, Director and Chairman of the Jury (left), presents the Tolerance Award 2006 to Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, as the then-German Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier (right) looks on; May 2006. Photograph: AKDN/Zahur Ramji.
Synergos Founder and Chairperson Peggy Dulany presenting the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award to Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan in London on October 22, 2012. Photo: AKDN/JMB Photographic Ltd
Synergos Founder and Chairperson Peggy Dulany presenting the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award to Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan in London on October 22, 2012. Photo: AKDN/JMB Photographic Ltd

adrienne clarkson global citizen award to aga khan
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, receives the inaugural Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship in Toronto, Canada, on September 21, 2016. The prize recognises an individual who has, through thought and dialogue, encouraged approaches and strategies that strive to remove barriers, change attitudes, and reinforce the principles of tolerance and respect. Photo: AKDN/Lisa Sakulensky.

The Aga Khan is presented the World Monument Fund's Hadrian Award on October 25, 1996 by David Rockefeller. In the keynote speech at the presentation ceremony, Cyrus Vance, former US Secretary of State, noted the Aga Khan's lifelong labour to improve the lives of Islamic peoples throughout the world and his commitment to the preservation and renewal of societies. Photo: The Ismaili Canada, July 1997.
Mawlana Shah Karim, His Highness the Aga Khan, is presented the World Monument Fund’s Hadrian Award on October 25, 1996 by David Rockefeller. In the keynote speech at the presentation ceremony, Cyrus Vance, former US Secretary of State, noted Aga Khan’s lifelong labour in improving the lives of Islamic peoples worldwide and his commitment to preserving and renewing societies. Photograph: The Ismaili Canada, July 1997, print edition.

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Andrew Kosorok -- Your Aga Kha - My Heo

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  1. His Highness the Aga Khan’s Foresight and Wisdom at Age 20 (Taksht-nishini messages)
  2. Bruno Freschi: The Architecture of Empathic Pluralism — His Highness the Aga Khan, an inspired vision of architecture
  3. Andrew Kosorok: Larnin’ in the Post-Colonial World — the atomic Imam speaks on education
  4. Andrew Kosorok: Volunteering and the Aga Khan
  5. Andrew Kosorok: Building God’s Kingdom – Prince Karim Aga Khan on patriotism and community

Princess Zahra Aga Khan’s Insightful and Inspiring Interview with Farah Nasser, and the Story Behind Our Featured Photo

Farah Nasser and Zahra Aga Khan
Farah Nasser hands Princess Zahra Aga Khan a Tablet, requesting that she watch a 1994 clip from a Farman delivered by Mawlana Hazar Imam to the UK Jamat gathered in London. Photograph: Still photo from interview.
Zahara Aga Khan with Farah Nasser
Princess Zahra Aga Khan watches a video clip of her father, Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, telling his Ismaili community in the UK in August 1992 that the Princess graduated from university with an honours degree and would be joining him to work by his side. Photograph: Still photo from interview.
Aga Khan announces graduation of his daughter from university, 1992, Simerg Insights from around the world
With deep happiness, Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, shared the news with his spiritual children gathered in London, England, in August 1994, that his daughter Princess Zahra had graduated with honours and would be joining him to work by his side. The news was met with joy and a wave of applause. Photograph: Still photo from video watched by Princess Zahra.

BBC Story: Melting glaciers leave homes teetering in valley of jagged mountains – the impact of climate change on Hunza and Chitral

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VIDEO

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Zahra Aga Khan: A Life of Commitment to Global Development and the Ismaili Imamat

Princess Zahra Aga Khan and the AKU delegation get a tour of Maynooth University while signing the MOU between the Irish University and Aga Khan University. This first-of-its-kind partnership between AKU and an Irish university will promote collaboration in research, student and staff mobility, and knowledge exchange in mutual expertise and development areas. Photograph: Maynooth University via AKDN.
Princess Zahra Aga Khan (centre) gets a tour of Ireland’s Maynooth University while signing a Memorandum of Understanding between the University and Aga Khan University. This first-of-its-kind partnership between AKU and an Irish university will promote collaboration in research, student and staff mobility, and knowledge exchange in mutual expertise and development areas. Photograph: Maynooth University via AKDN.

Prince Rahim Aga Khan Graces the Inauguration of India’s First Sunken Museum in New Delhi

Prince Rahim Aga Khan and India’s Minister of Culture and Toursism, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, perform a lamp-lighting ceremony to formally inaugurate the Humayun Tomb World Heritage Site Museum in New Delhi
Prince Rahim Aga Khan and India’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, perform a lamp-lighting ceremony to formally inaugurate the Humayun Tomb World Heritage Site Museum in New Delhi on July 29, 2024. Photograph: PIB/Government of India.

Date posted: July 30, 2024.

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(I) Social Justice Concerns About the Aga Hall Project in Mumbai; and (II) Sad Observations by a Canadian Ismaili Visitor to India

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Aga Hall Towers
Aga Hall Towers, Mumbai, India, centre of photo.

  • What impact will the seeming turnaround have on the way Ismailis conceptualize some of their fundamental values?
  • How will those who are feeling disaffected with the community’s institutions respond?

Article continues below

Cover page, Aga Hall brochure.

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Page 26, Aga Hall brochure.

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Institute of Ismaili Studies inaugural alumni award to Karim H Karim
Professor Karim H. Karim delivering his remarks on March 23, 2024, at the Ismaili Centre in London upon being presented the Institute of Ismaili Studies inaugural Alumni Recognition Award. Photograph: Institute of Ismaili Studies/via Karim H. Karim.

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  1. Aga Khan Agency for Habitat. (2023). Aga Khan Agency for Habitat. AKDN.
  2. Aga Hall Estate. (No date). The Aga Hall Estate, Mumbai (brochure). Aga Hall Estate.
  3. AKDN. (May 28, 2014). Aga Hall Estate Redevelopment Project: Design Report. AKDN/Stantec.
  4. American Ismaili Chamber of Commerce. (Nov 11, 2021). The Aga Hall Estate project, Mumbai, India.
  5. Charania, Shahnaz. (April 11, 2018). The Heritage Walk. The Ismaili India.
  6. Das, Basudha (2023, Feb 15). Mumbai leaves Delhi behind, ranks as world’s second-most polluted cityBusiness Today (Noida, India). 
  7. Karim H. Karim. (2022, Nov. 23). Contemporary Nizari Thought’s Pragmatic Turn and the Centrality of Ethics. Ismaili Studies Conference: State of the Field. Institute of Ismaili Studies. London, UK.
  8. Karim H. Karim. (2014). The Aga Khan Development Network: Shia Ismaili Islam. In Stephen M. Cherry and Helen Rose Ebaugh (Eds.), Global Religious Movements Across Borders. London: Ashgate Publishers.
  9. Simerg (2010, August 26). “Bombay…. has very close associations with my family.” Mawlana Hazar Imam Takht Nashini speech.
  10. Edge. (2023). The Aga Hall Estate.
  11. IICanada. (Sept 7, 2023).  Aga Hall Estate Redevelopment Information Sessions
  12. Ini Design Studio. (2023). The Aga Hall Estate Redevelopment Plan.
  13. Institute of Ismaili Studies. (2000). Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN): An Ethical Framework.
  14. The Ismaili. (Feb 14, 2022). Aga Hall Estate: A gift from the past that gives into the future.
  15. The Ismaili. (March 3, 2024). Aga Hall Estate awarded Iconic Residential Project of the Year.
  16. Lakhani, Ali. (2018). Faith and Ethics: The Vision of the Ismaili Imamat, London: I.B. Tauris / IIS
  17. Kurwa, Aziz R. (Sept. 11. 2021). Happy Days in HasanabadSimerg.
  18. Thakkar, Mehul. (Oct 31, 2022). Aga Khan Development Network to Invest Rs. 2,000 Crore on Luxury Development Project in South Mumbai. Money Control. 
  19. Vellani, Shams. (2020.) People of Faith: Essays on a Historical and Contemporary Profile of the Ismailis. London: IB Tauris / IIS.

Prince Rahim Aga Khan in Pakistan; and His Highness the Aga Khan – Visual and Textual Expressions

he President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, congratulates Prince Rahim Aga Khan after conferring on him the Nishan-i-Pakistan on June 7, 2024, at a ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President’s official residence in Islamabad. Photograph:: AKDN/ Akbar Hakim.
The President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, congratulates Prince Rahim Aga Khan after conferring on him the Nishan-i-Pakistan on June 7, 2024, at a ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the President’s official residence in Islamabad. Photograph: AKDN/Akbar Hakim. Please click on the photo for more coverage of the event and other events since the beginning of 2024.
Prince Rahim climbs up the Duiker hill for a bird's eye view of the areas that will benefit from the expansion of the power plant in Hunza.
Prince Rahim Aga Khan climbs up Duiker Hill to get a bird’s eye view of the areas that will benefit from the expansion of the power plant in Hunza. Please click on the image for this and other stories.
Photograph: AKDN/Akbar Hakim.

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VOA and BBC Videos: In a Project Started by the Aga Khan Development Network in Hunza, Pakistani Women Carpenters Break Stereotypes and Prove They Can Build as Well as Men

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“Significant Encounter” in Jeddah as Prince Sultan University’s Board Of Trustees Chair Receives Director Of Aga Khan Award For Architecture

https://www.ksa.com/prince-abdulaziz-welcomes-aga-khan-award-director-farrokh-derakhshani-today
On January 7, 2024, Prince Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Riyadh Philanthropic Society for Sciences and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Prince Sultan University, welcomed Farrokh Derakhshani, the Director the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Seen on the wall are portraits of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia (left), and King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, First Monarch Of Saudi Arabia Photograph: KSA.Com
Corniche Mosque 1987-89 Cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Corniche Mosque, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, one of the recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the 1987-1989 award cycle. Photograph: AKDN.

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