Elias David Sassoon

Elias David Sassoon
אליהו דוד ששון
David Sassoon (seated) and sons, including Elias David Sassoon (left)
Born27 March 1820
Baghdad, Baghdad Eyalet, Ottoman Empire
Died21 March 1880 (aged 59)
Galle, British Ceylon
Resting placeBombay
OccupationMerchant
SpouseLeah Gubbay
Children6
FatherDavid Sassoon
RelativesSassoon family

Elias David Sassoon (27 March 1820 – 21 March 1880) was an Indian Baghdadi Jewish merchant.[1] He was the son of David Sassoon and a member of the Sassoon family.[2] Sassoon earned an immense fortune alongside his family and he was the founder of E. D. Sassoon & Co., a trading company he founded in 1867.[3][2]

Early life and background

Born in Baghdad into a Baghdadi Jewish family, Sassoon was the second son of David Sassoon and a member of the Sassoon family.[1][4] His father, David, was an Iraqi Baghdadi Jewish merchant and trader who fled with his family from Baghdad to Bombay, India, in 1832, and later began trading in textiles.[5][6] Sassoon was one of 14 siblings.[6]

Career

In 1832, Sassoon's father, David, founded David Sassoon and Sons, which later became David Sassoon & Co., a trading company.[7] After the First Opium War, which ended in 1842, Sassoon, at the age of 24, was sent by his father, David, to China to seek new opportunities for their family’s trading business.[5]

In 1844, Sassoon arrived in Guangzhou, known then as Canton, and in 1845, he moved to Shanghai after recognizing that the best business opportunities were in Shanghai.[1] Sassoon was instumental in his family businesses' growth in China.[5] In the 1850s, Sassoon and his older brother, Albert, became partners in David Sassoon & Co., with their father.[7] Sassoon expanded the Sassoon family's businesses in China and eventually, the family's trading fleet carried around one-fifth of the total opium imported into China.[1] The Sassoon businesses would sell opium and British textiles in China in exchange for silk, tea and silver.[1]

In 1867, Sassoon separated from his family company and established his own company, named E. D. Sassoon & Co., as a result of a feud with his brother Albert.[5][8] The feud arose from resentment over Albert's appointment as head of the family and being placed in charge of the family businesses after the death of their father, David, in 1864.[5] Sassoon also made it a business policy that his company, E. D. Sassoon & Co., would directly compete with David Sassoon & Co. in every area and tradable product.[5] After establishing E. D. Sassoon & Co., he would import cloth from Britain and sell it to luxury stores in Shanghai that catered to wealthy European settlers in the city.[1]

Personal life and death

Sassoon was married to Leah Gubbay.[9] They were parents to 6 children, including Jacob, Edward, Joseph, and Hannah.[9] In 1878, Sassoon established the Jewish Cemetery, Chinchpokli in memory of his son Joseph, who had died in Shanghai in 1868.[10][11][12] His daughter Hannah married Sassoon David.[13] He died in 1880 in British Ceylon.[14][15] Sassoon's sons built the Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue in Mumbai, which was completed in 1884, in memory of Sassoon.[16] After his death, E. D. Sassoon & Co. was led by his son, Jacob Sassoon.[1] In 1909, his son, Jacob, became the 1st Baronet of Bombay in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Kamalakaran, Ajay (9 November 2024). "How the Sassoons of Bombay became one of China's wealthiest families". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b England, Vaudine (1 January 1998). The Quest of Noel Croucher: Hong Kong's Quiet Philanthropist. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-962-209-473-4.
  3. ^ Menon, Rashmi (31 May 2022). "How the Sassoons put India on the Global business map". Mint. Archived from the original on 6 December 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  4. ^ Fernando, Benita (15 March 2022). "New book sheds light on one of Mumbai's most influential business families, the Sassoons". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Philpot, Robert (26 November 2022). "The rise and fall of the opium-fueled Sassoon dynasty, the 'Rothschilds of the East'". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  6. ^ a b Stammers, Tom (27 February 2023). "The sensational collections of the Sassoon family". Apollo. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  7. ^ a b "The Sassoons in Baghdad & India". Sotheby's. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  8. ^ Stanley Jackson: ″The Sassoons - Portrait of a Dynasty″, Second Edition, William Heinemann Ltd., London 1989, p.48 and 51, ISBN 0-434-37056-8
  9. ^ a b Weil, Shalva (2019). "Super-diversity among the Baghdadi Jews of India". In Weil, Shalva (ed.). The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-Diversity. Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-53387-7.
  10. ^ Prashant Kidambi, Manjiri Kamat, Rachel Dwyer, eds. Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos (Oxford University Press, 15 August 2019), p. 11
  11. ^ "Thousands of miles away from homeland, Jewish cemetery in Mumbai". The Indian Express. 4 March 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  12. ^ The Jewish Monthly. Vol. 3. London: Anglo-Jewish Association. 1949. p. 161.
  13. ^ Roland, Joan G. (2019). "Negotiating identity in a changing world: From British colonialism to Indian independence". In Weil, Shalva (ed.). The Baghdadi Jews in India: Maintaining Communities, Negotiating Identities and Creating Super-Diversity. Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-53387-7.
  14. ^ Macmillan, Allister (1928). Seaports of India & Ceylon. London: W. H. & L. Collingridge. p. 202.
  15. ^ Sassoon, Joseph (24 February 2022). The Global Merchants: The Enterprise and Extravagance of the Sassoon Dynasty. London: Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0-241-38866-2.
  16. ^ Datta, Rangan (27 December 2024). "What makes Keneseth Eliyahoo at Kala Ghoda the grandest of synagogues in Mumbai". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  17. ^ Dana, Léo-Paul (1 January 2010). "The Mizrahim: Anglicized Orientals with transnational networks and 'ethics capital'". In Dana, Léo-Paul (ed.). Entrepreneurship and Religion. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 87. ISBN 978-1-84980-632-9.
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