The Aga Khan, who assumed the role of spiritual leader for millions of Ismaili Muslims at age 20 while an undergraduate at Harvard, has died at age 88. He dedicated vast resources, amassed from millions of dollars in tithes, toward the construction of homes, hospitals and schools in developing nations.

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims and one of the world's wealthiest hereditary heirs, died Tuesday in Portugal. He was 88 and had led the Shiite branch — with large communities in South and Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and East Africa — for nearly seven decades