Aga Khan II
| Aga Khan II | |
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| Personal | |
| Born | Aqa Ali Shah 1830 Mahallat, Sublime State of Iran |
| Died | 1885 |
| Resting place | Najaf, Ottoman Iraq |
| Spouse |
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| Religious career | |
| Initiation | 1881 - 1885 |
| Post | 47th Nizari Imām |
Aga Khan II (Persian: آغا خان دوّم; Āghā Khān-i Duvvum or, less commonly but more correctly آقا خان دوّم Āqā Khān-i Duvvum), was the title of Aqa Ali Shah (آقا علی شاه Āqā ‘Alī Shāh; b. 1830 in Mahallat, Iran; d. August 1885 in Pune, India), the 47th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims. A member of the Iranian royal family, he became the Imam in 1881. During his lifetime, he helped to better not only his own community, but also the larger Muslim community of India. He was an avid sportsman and hunter.
Aqa Ali Shah was born in 1830 at Mahallat in Iran. He was the eldest son of Aga Khan I and the only surviving male issue of his father with Sarv-i Jahan Khanum (Sarv-i Jahān Khānum, d. 1882). Aqa Ali Shah was a member of the Iranian royal family, as his mother was the daughter of Fat′h Ali Shah, the second ruler of the Qajar dynasty. His rank as a prince of the royal family was also recognized by Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar when Aqa Ali Shah's father died. Nasser al-Din himself carried out a ceremony performed among Persian princes to mark the end of mourning of deceased relations. In addition, Nasser al-Din sent a robe of honour and the emblem of the Persian Crown studded with diamonds to Aga Ali Shah as a sign of the Shah's relationship with the Aga Khan's family.
He descended from the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt. He spent his early years in Mahallat; however, his father’s attempts to regain his former position as governor of Kirman made residence there difficult, and so Aqa Ali Shah was taken to Iraq with his mother in 1840. There he studied Arabic, Persian, and Nizari Ismaili doctrine, and soon gained a reputation as an authority on Persian and Arabic literature, as a student of metaphysics, and as an exponent of religious philosophy. In the late 1840s, changed political circumstances allowed Aqa Ali Shah to return to Persia where he took over some of his father's responsibilities. In 1853, Sarv-i Jahan Khanum and Aqa Ali Shah joined Aga Khan I in Bombay. As his father's heir apparent to the Ismaili Imamat, Aqa Ali Shah frequently visited various Ismaili communities in South Asia, particularly those in Sind and Kathiawar.
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