Aga Khan I rebelled against Fath Ali's successor and had to flee to India in 1840. He was welcomed by the British rulers of India as an ally since they were then on bad terms with Persia. In return for his support during the war against Afghanistan (1839-1842) and in the conquest of Sind, he was given a pension and the title of Highness.
The British valued the Aga Khan's support, as they hoped this would show the large Moslem population of India that they were not anti-Moslem, even though they were making war on Moslem countries. The Aga Khan's support was of particular importance in western India, where there were considerable numbers of Ismailis. Most belonged to the group known as Khojas, descendants of converts made in the 14th century by missionaries sent by the Ismailis from Persia. These converts belonged mainly to the trading classes, with businesses centered in Karachi and Bombay but with links to East Africa and other points along the coast of the Indian Ocean. Aga Khan I used these trading links to knit the Khojas into a tightly organized group. Because they regarded him as a semidivine figure, they were willing to pay, as the tenets of the sect demanded, about an eighth of their income to him.
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