Hussaini, also known as the Aga Khan, died on Tuesday, February 4, aged 88. A colossally wealthy philanthropist, he was also the imam of the Nizari Ismaili faith, an esoteric branch of Shia Islam that changed the history of the Middle East.

At the age of 20, Prince Karim Al-Hussaini inherited the reins of a Shia Muslim lineage and used his entrepreneurship to become one of the world’s richest hereditary rulers.

The Tuesday death of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s millions of Ismaili Muslims, and the Wednesday announcement of his successor struck a deep chord with Houston’s sizable Ismaili Muslim community this week.