Aga Khan's hatred for Ithna'ashri Maulvis

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Aga Khan developed a hatred for the strict regimentation he was subjected to by his mother and uncles. As he grew up, he developed the same resentment for the religious training he was subjected to, as well as for his tutors (the Ithna'ashri Maulvis) and their philosophy. Here are a few extracts from his Memoirs (pp. 12 and 18): <p> Thereafter I had three hours' instruction in Arabic....After dinner came the horror of horrors. I was set down to two hours of calligraphy of the dreariest and most soul-destroying kind. My mother had been impressed by the advice — the foolish advice as it turned out — of Arabic and Persian scholars and pedants, who had assured her that calligraphy in the classical Persian and Arabic scripts was of the highest importance....My mother, my uncles, and everyone else in our household united in compelling me to this horrible calligraphy. It was in fact a very real martyrdom for me.... <br> Then I would have to go back to my gloomy treadmill and hear my tutor cursing and railing as was his habit. Since he was a Shia of the narrowest outlook he concentrated his most ferocious hatred not on non-Muslims, not even on those who persecuted the Prophet, but on the caliphs and companions of the Prophet.... <br> This form of Shiaism attains its climax during the month of Moharram with its lamentations and its dreadful cursings. Reaction against its hatred, intolerance, and bigotry has, I know, coloured my whole life, and I have found my answer in the simple prayer that God in His infinite mercy will forgive the sins of all Muslims, the slayers and the slain....