The Aga Khan III

Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah was born at Honeymoon Lodge in Karachi on Friday, the 25th Shawal, 1294/November 2, 1877. When the news of his birth was routed to the Aga Khan I in Bombay, he said: "Name him Muhammad Sultan. He would be a Sultan (emperor) in the world. His period would see wonderful events, and would earn distinguished position in the world." At the age of eight he lost his father Aly Shah, the Aga Khan II, and assumed the title of Aga Khan III, thus becoming the hereditary spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims.
Until the age of 18 years, the Aga Khan III received education in Bombay and Poona. He was deeply indebted to his learned and wise mother, Lady Ali Shah, to whom he owed his liberal and extensive education. Though deprived of the paternal solicitude of his father at the age of eight year, his mother took abundant parental interest in his education.
Besides oriental languages like Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Hindi, he also developed command over English, French and Germany. Along with Islamic education, he also studied western thought, sciences, metaphysics, astronomy and mathematics from his three European tutors. Like his mother, he also took interest in the poetical works of Rumi, Hafiz, Sa'adi, Firdausi and Umar Khayyam.
Recollecting memory of his childhood, the Aga Khan once said: "As a child I was very much interested in philosophy and poetry, because anyone who knows Persian literature is naturally inclined to those subjects by the wonderful power, charm and grace of our Persian poets. I came under the influence of Hafiz, Maulana Rumi and others at an early and impressionable age, and they opened my eyes to the wonders of the universe and to the need of constantly keeping abreast of scientific and philosophic speculation and discovery. I have never since lost my interest in these subjects and have tried, as far as one can in the midst of a busy life, to read all the most recent theories and the arguments on which they are founded."
The Aga Khan made his debut as an educational reformer, and visited The Mohammadan Anglo Oriental (M.A.O) College in Aligarh on November 22, 1896 and had a productive meeting with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898), who was a great educationist and socialist. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had founded the Aligarh College on November 1, 1875, and was the Vice-President of the College Fund Committee as well as its Honorary Secretary. Willi Frischauer also writes in "The Aga Khans" (London, 1970, pp. 56-7) that, "How wonderful if Aligarh could become a full university to bring up a generation of young leaders and advance the cause of Islam. Here was a chance to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor who had founded al-Azhar, the first Muslim university, which greatly appealed to the young Aga Khan. He decided to put up money for the cause and persuaded wealthy friends to contribute. It was a long struggle but he missed no opportunity to plead for this cause and when Aligarh finally became a university two dozen years later, it was more to Muslims than a seat of learning. In retrospect it was recognized as the intellectual cradle of independent Pakistan and the Aga Khan's enthusiasm and support which made it possible and earned him a place among Pakistan's founding fathers."
In 1898, the Aga Khan III set out from Bombay on his first journey to Europe, and visited France and Britain, where he had an audience with Queen Victoria at Windsor Palace. In the state banquet at Windsor Palace, he was sitting next to the Queen on her right side. No ruling prince from India who held great temporal power would have been treated with greater honour and respect like the Aga Khan. He was invested the honourable title of Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (K.C.I.E.). He also met the future King Edward VII.
The Aga Khan III paid his first visit to East African countries in 1317/1899, where the Sultan of Zanzibar granted him the title of Brilliant Star of Zanzibar. On his second visit to Europe in 1900, the Aga Khan III held a meeting with Muzaffaruddin Shah Qajar (1313-1324/1896-1907) of Iran in Paris, who awarded him the title of Shamsul Hamayun or Star of Persia. He had also a meeting with Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II in Istanbul, who granted him the title of Star of Turkey. The German emperor Kaiser William II also awarded the title of First Class Prussian Order of the Royal Crown at Potsdam.
On January 22, 1901, the Queen Victoria expired; therefore, the Aga Khan III attended the funeral at London on February 2, 1901. He was the personal guest of emperor Edward VII at his coronation in August 2, 1902, who promoted the Aga Khan from the rank of Knight (K.C.I.E.) to that of Grand Commander of the Order of Indian Empire (G.C.I.E.). He returned to India in November 1902. The viceroy of India, Lord Curzon appointed him to a seat of his Legislative Council of India.
ALIGARH MOVEMENT: The Aga Khan believed that the root cause of Muslim backwardness in India was illiteracy, and therefore, education was the panacea for their ills. He thought that education should be a medium of service to others and a tool for modernization. He also considered the aim of education to be character building. According to Islamuddin in "The Aga Khan III" (Islamabad, 1978, pg. 22), "It was he, who, translated the dream of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan into reality, by raising the status of Aligarh College into a great Muslim University."
Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah states in "The Prince Aga Khan" (London, 1933, pg. 65) that, "It was Sir Syed Ahmad who founded Aligarh College, but it was the Aga Khan, an ardent enthusiastic promoter of the ideal of education, who has been mainly responsible for the raising of its status to that of a University."
After the death of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in 1898, the Aga Khan III advised Mohsin al-Mulk (1837-1907), the Secretary of Aligarh College, to tour India to procure public opinion for the cause of Muslim University. His interest in the Aligarh College dates from the time when he was called upon to preside at an Educational Conference held at Delhi at the time of Lord Curzon's proclamation Durbar in 1902. He used the platform of Muslim Educational Conference to bring home to the Muslims, the importance of education, and Muslim University at Aligarh. In his Presidential address to the Muslim Educational Conference, the Aga Khan said: "If, then, we are really in earnest in deploring the fallen condition of our people, we must unite in an effort for their redemption and, first and foremost of all, an effort must now be made for the foundation of University where Muslim youths can get, in addition to modern sciences, a knowledge of their glorious past and religion and where the whole atmosphere of the place, it being a residential University, nay, like Oxford, give more attention to character than to mere examinations. Muslims of India have legitimate interests in the intellectual development of their co-religionists in Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and the best way of helping them is by making Aligarh a Muslim Oxford ... "(vide "Khutbat-I-Aliyah", Aligarh, 1927, Part I, pg. 206).
To make a concerted drive for the collection of funds, a Central Foundation Committee with the Aga Khan III as Chairman with Maulana Shaukat Ali (1873-1938) as his Secretary; and prominent Muslims from all walks of life as members was formed at Aligarh on January 10, 1911. The Aga Khan III accompanied by Maulana Shaukat Ali, who was still in government service and had taken a year's furlough, toured throughout the country to raise funds, visiting Calcutta, Allahabad, Lucknow, Cawnpore, Lahore, Bombay and other places. According to Willi Frischauer in "The Aga Khans" (London, 1970, pg. 76), "His campaign for the Aligarh University required a final big heave and, as Chairman of the fund raising committee, he went on a collecting tour through India's main Muslim areas: "As a mendicant," he announced, "I am now going out to beg from house to house and from street to street for the children of Indian Muslims." It was a triumphal tour. Wherever he went, people unharnessed the horses of his carriage and pulled it themselves for miles."
The response to the touching appeal of the Aga Khan III was spontaneous. On his arrival at Lahore, the daily "Peace" of Punjab editorially commented and called upon the Muslims "to wake up, as the greatest personality and benefactor of Islam was in their city. "The paper recalled a remark of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan prophesying the rise of a hand from the unseen world to accomplish his mission. "That personality" the paper said, "was of the Aga Khan III. In sum, the Aga Khan collected twenty-six lacs of rupees by July, 1912 in the drive and his personal contribution amounted to one lac rupees.
On October 20, 1920, the Aligarh University was granted its official Charter. In spite of several obstacles, the Aga Khan continued his ceaseless efforts for the Muslim University, and further announced his annual grant of Rs. 10,000/- for Aligarh University, which was subsequently raised.
It must be noted on this juncture that in January 1857, Lord Canning (1856-1862) had passed the Acts of Incorporation in India, which provided for the establishment of universities in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The fourth university was then established in 1882 by a Special Act of Incorporation in Punjab and the fifth was that of Allahabad University in 1887. Thus, by the end of 1902 there were five universities in India, and Aligarh University was the sixth one.
It will remain as a historical reminder of the fact that the Aga Khan gave continuity to the traditions of his ancestors as pioneers of education in Egypt and elsewhere-traditions associated with the foundation of Al-Azhar, the oldest existing university in the world, which to this day is crowded with students from all parts of the globe.
The Aga Khan III instituted the Aga Khan Foreign Scholarship programme for the promising students. It is worth mentioning here that Dr. Ziauddin was one of the students of the Aga Khan in the sense that the Aga Khan paid for his years of study at Cambridge. Among other great Muslim scholars, who benefited from the munificent help were Dr. L.K. Hyder, the well known economist, Mr. Wali Muhammad, a great physicist, Dr. Zafarul Hasan, a learned theologian, and Dr. Zaki etc. Islamuddin writes in "Aga Khan III" (Islamabad, 1978, pg. 27) that, "Thus it would not be an exaggeration to say that without Aga Khan, there would have been no Aligarh University, and without Aligarh, Pakistan would have been a near impossibility. "The Aga Khan himself said in his "Memoirs" (London, 1954, pg. 36) that: "We may claim with pride that Aligarh was the product of our own efforts and of no outside benevolence and surely it may also be claimed that the independent sovereign nation of Pakistan was born in the Muslim University of Aligarh."
(TO BE CONTINUED)