Shah Rahim al-Hussaini (born 12 October 1971), known simply as Aga Khan V, is the 50th Imam of the Nizari Isma'ilis since 2025. He is a philanthropist, socialite, and businessman, who inherited the Nizari imamate and the title of Aga Khan upon the death of his father, Shah Karim al-Hussaini (Aga Khan IV).
He is the second of four children of Shah Karim al-Husseini, who went by the title Aga Khan IV, and succeeded as the Nizari Imam following his father's death on 4 February 2025. He is the fifth person in the family to hold the title Aga Khan. Upon assuming the Imamate, he inherited his father's estate, which was valued at over US$13.3 billion by Vanity Fair in 2013.
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Early life and education
Rahim Aga Khan was born on 12 October 1971, in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the eldest son and second oldest of three children born to Shah Karim al-Husseini (Aga Khan IV) and his first wife Salimah Aga Khan (née Sarah Croker-Poole), a British national.
Rahim was educated in the United States, receiving his secondary education at Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts from which he graduated in 1990, before graduating from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature in 1995. In 2006 he completed graduate studies in management and administration in Barcelona, Spain, at the IESE Business School University of Navarra.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Rahim has been involved for many years in the governance of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), where he chaired the AKDN Environment and Climate Committee.
In 2019, Rahim sat on either the Board or Executive Committee for several of AKDN agencies and affiliated structures, including the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, and the Aga Khan University Foundation.
In 2010, he established the Aga Khan Brown Workshop series at the Watson Institute.
Succession to the Imamate
Shah Rahim al-Hussaini, who had been designated successor by his father, was publicly announced as the 50th Imam following his father's death on 4 February 2025. The announcement took place after the reading of Shah Karim al-Husseini’s will at the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon. According to Nizari Ismaili tradition, leadership passes through designation by the previous Imam.
Personal life
Rahim married Kendra Irene Spears on 31 August 2013 in Geneva. They have two children: Irfan (b. 11 April 2015) and Sinan (b. 2 January 2017). In 2019, he bought a house in Unstad in Vestvågøy Municipality, Norway. The couple divorced in February 2022.
The style of His Highness was granted to Shah Rahim by King Charles III on 10 February 2025.
Hashemite ancestry
Titles, Styles and Honours
Honours
Pakistan:
Nishan-e-Pakistan (7 June 2024)
Kenya:
Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya (26 August 2025)
Uganda:
Collar of the Most Excellent Order of the Pearl of Africa (11 September 2025)
Awards
Egypt:
Symbolic Key to the City of Aswan by the Governor of Aswan (9 February 2025)
United States:
Symbolic Key to the City of Sugar Land, Texas by the Mayor of Sugar Land (5 November 2025)
Symbolic Key to the City of Houston by the Mayor of Houston (5 November 2025)
Symbolic Key to the City of Dallas by the Mayor of Dallas (9 November 2025)
Symbolic Key to the City of Carrollton by the Mayor of Carrollton (9 November 2025)
Symbolic Key to the City of Euless by the Mayor of Euless (9 November 2025)
Canada:
Symbolic Key to the City of Toronto by the Mayor of Toronto (30 March 2026)
Civic Merit Award by the Mayor of Vancouver (26 July 2026)
Italy:
Honorary Citizenship of Arzachena, Sardinia, Italy by the Mayor of Arzachena (9 July 2026)