His Royal Highness Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III (1877-1957) was born at Karachi on November 2, 1877 and became the 48th Imam and spiritual leader of the Ismaili community at the young age of eight years (in 1885), after the sad demise of his father Aga Ali Shah. The title of His Highness was bestowed upon him at the age of nine.

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III was one of those Muslim stalwarts who believed in Islam as a world religion and worked ceaselessly for its triumph throughout his life.

Under the guidance of his judicious mother, Sir Aga Khan received careful educational training and within a few years was able to read and write with perfect ease in Persian, Arabic, English and French. He made remarkable progress in both Eastern and Western literature and in the knowledge of ancient and modern history. He was proficient in philosophy, theology and the English classics and acquired mastery over the works of Persian poets.

In 1898, Sir Aga Khan made his first trip to the West. He was received in London with great honour by the Prime Minister and elite leaders in the British Kingdom. Queen Victoria invited him to dine with her and stay at the Windsor Castle. During her coronation ceremony, she made Prince Aga Khan sit to her right, on the seat reserved for the highest personality in the British Kingdom.

Prince Aga Khan laid the foundation of a separate nation for the Indian Muslims as early as 1906. He led a deligation of Muslims to the Viceroy and demanded separate electorates for the Muslims. He was voted president of the Muslim League and occupied this post for seven years from 1906 to 1913.

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III played a pivotal role in making the Pakistan Movement a success by inculcating political awareness among the Muslims of the sub-continent.

He was elected the leader and spokesman of the special delegation of Muslim leaders, which included Quaid-i-Azam, the Aga Khan, Sir Mohamed Shafi, Maulana Mohamed Ali and Maulana Fazlul Huq, that attended the Round Table Conference in London soon after World War I to introduce new reforms for the Indians. Following the success of the Round Table Conference, Sir Abdullah Haroon complimented the Aga Khan III in a letter dated December 27, 1932, and said that “On behalf of Sind please convey my heartiest thanks to all Round Table Delegates especially the Muslim Delegation whose labours were  crowned with success. Sind and Muslims of India will never forget Your Highness services which you are rendering. May Allah reward you.” (Haji Sir Abdoola Haroon by A.M. Ahmad Shafi).

Sir Aga Khan realised that the main cause of the political backwardness of the Muslims was their neglect of education, and to spread education among the Muslims became the most important mission of his life. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had started the great Aligarh Movement and in it lay the salvation of the future of Muslims. In 1902, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah became a member of the Imperial Legislative Council and was asked to preside over the Mohammadan Education Conference held in Delhi. In his presidential address he said: “We want to create for our people an intellectual capital that shall be a home of elevated ideas and high ideals, a centre from which light and guidance shall be diffused amongst the Muslims of India and out of India too, and shall hold up to the world model standard of justice and virtue and purity of our beloved faith.”

In 1911, the Aga Khan took upon himself the task of collecting funds to start the Aligarh University. He increased the annual grant that he had been giving to the college for the last many years and promised to contribute a substantial amount to the University funds. He donated money in cash for scholarships to the most deserving students for foreign studies, which the trustees named “Aga Khan Foreign Scholarship”. In his speech he said that he wanted to establish an institution capable of dealing with giving the Muslim youths not merely the finest education that can be given in India, but a training equal to that which can be given in any country in the world.

Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan established social development institutions in the subcontinent of India and Pakistan, “for the relief of humanity”. They include institutions such as the Diamond Jubilee Investment Trust and the Platinum Jubilee Investments Limited which in turn assisted the growth of various types of co-operative societies. Diamond Jubilee Schools for girls were set up throughout the remote Northern Areas of Pakistan. The foundations of the present education system of the Aga Khan Schools in Pakistan were laid by Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan III, who established over 200 schools during the 20th century, the first in 1905 in Zanzibar and in Gwadar, Balochistan, followed by schools in Dar-es-Salaam in 1906 and in Mundra, India, in 1907.