Sultan Muhammad Shah’s birthday today

Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, was born on November 2, 1877 in Karachi, Pakistan. He succeeded to the Imamat at the age of eight, and devoted much of his time and resources to consolidating and organizing the Nizari Ismaili community in India and East Africa. Under his leadership, the first half of the twentieth century was a period of significant development for the Ismaili community. Numerous institutions for social and economic development were established on the Indian sub-continent and in East Africa, where the Nizari Ismailis immigrated in the 19th century. The Nizari Ismailis had been active traders between western India and East Africa since the 17th century and began to settle permanently in East Africa during the early decades of the 19th century. The early Indian Nizari immigrants came mainly from Cutch, Kathiavar, Surat, and Bombay and originally settled on the island of Zanzibar, with large numbers immigrating after 1840 as a result of improved travelling facilities between India and East Africa. By the end of the 19th century, when the interior of East Africa was becoming more accessible through the construction of roads and railways, an increasing number of trading establishments moved from Zanzibar to the East African mainland. By the early 1920s, new centres of economic activity had appeared on the mainland, where the Nizaris had gradually moved with encouragement from the Imam. Having lost its importance as the main commercial centre of the region, Zanzibar ceased to be the seat of the East African Nizari community