.agakhan
| Status: | Delegated |
| Registry Provider: | Afilias |
| Type: | Brand TLD |
| Priority #: | 137 - Fondation Aga Khan |
.agakhan is a Brand TLD delegated to the Root Zone in ICANN's New gTLD Program on 16 April 2016. The registry operator is Fondation Aga Khan (Aga Khan Foundation).[1][2]
Application Excerpts
The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:
"Aga Khan is the hereditary title of the Imam (Spiritual Leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. The current Imam, the 49th hereditary Imam, is His Highness the Aga Khan, the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network. The title of “Aga Khan” dates to 1818, when Hassan Ali Shah, the 46th Ismaili Imam, was granted the honorary hereditary title of “Aga Khan” by the Shah of Persia.
The Aga Khan name has become synonymous with the institutions of His Highness the Aga Khan and his predecessors have set up over the past 100 years. Institutions, projects and programmes associated with the Aga Khan operate within a unified, coherent framework, in over 25 countries, many of them with their own identities and domain names. These organizations range from development programmes, such as the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, to research and educational institutions such as the Aga Khan University and the Aga Khan Academies. The Aga Khan name also encompasses many scores of volunteer-run programmes that currently operate under different identities, such as the Aga Khan Youth & Sports Board.
An .AGAKHAN TLD would provide the means to link these institutions together and unify them under a solid association with the Aga Khan, reducing confusion and providing an assurance of the origin of information to the stakeholders. Domains under the .AGAKHAN TLD would signify that the institution using a domain name is a bonafide entity established by His Highness the Aga Khan, with his express consent.
This application is therefore largely based on the need to reinforce an identity that has come to be associated, in many countries, with certain characteristics, such as excellence, as well as the name of the hereditary leader of the Ismaili Muslims. Based on this dynamic, we expect to have 20 domains under management (DUMs) after three years.
...
The AGA KHAN FOUNDATION intends to create and operate the TLD as a single registrant⁄single user registry and plans to reserve domain names under the TLD for exclusive registration by the AGA KHAN FOUNDATION and its representatives to the exclusion of other parties. In addition, the AGA KHAN FOUNDATION does not intend to sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any second level domain name registrations in the TLD to any party other than to its representatives and related organisations. Accordingly the intended registration policies in support of the goals set out in this TLD application will not contain provisions relating to registration by parties that are not the AGA KHAN FOUNDATION or its representatives, who will solely and wholly control and maintain registrations under the TLD."[3]