Bombay Khoja dissidents sued the first Aga Khan for control of the community's funds, and a British judge ruled in 1866 that he was their hereditary imam

Hasan Ali Shah received the title Aga Khan from the Shah of Persia in 1818 and governed Kerman. He revolted in 1838, lost, fled to India, helped the British in the First Afghan War and the conquest of Sindh, and was given a pension. He settled in Bombay, where the Khoja community followed him. In 1847 an inheritance dispute between two Khoja brothers reached the court: the Khoja leaders argued caste custom, the other side Quranic law, and Sir Erskine Perry ruled for the leaders^†. By 1851 the community had split. In 1861 the Aga Khan asked Khojas to sign a document affirming Nizari beliefs and loyalty to him. In 1866 dissidents sued. They argued the Khojas were Sunni Muslims and asked the court to take an accounting of the community's property, put it under court supervision, hold elections, and bar the Aga Khan from demanding payments or excommunicating members. After a 25-day trial in which the Aga Khan testified, Justice Sir Joseph Arnould ruled on 12 November 1866 that the Khojas were Shia Ismailis, that the Aga Khan was their rightful leader, and that they had long made payments to him and his ancestors^†. Britannica records that he won his case on control of the community's funds. Aga Khan I died in April 1881.