Who are the Sassoons of Bombay?
The founding patriarch of the Sassoon family of Bombay, is David Sassoon (1793 - 1864). He was the second son of Sheikh Sassoon ben Saleh. Sassoon ben Saleh (1750–1830) and his family were the chief treasurers to the pashas of Baghdad and Southern Iraq. Till 1864, the chief treasurers chosen from the minority Jewish community of Baghdad was also appointed as the Nasi or leader of the resident Jewish community
The Sassoons were amongst the important merchant families of Baghdad. It was because of their prominence that the family became the target of terror and extortion by the Governor of Baghdad, Daud Pasha. David was imprisoned and was only released when his father paid a large ransom. It was because of a threat to his life that he did not even spend one night at home after his release and escaped first to Basra, a port city located at the head of the Persian Gulf, and then to Bushire, a port in Persia (Iran). It was here that his ageing father joined him with the rest of the family. After living some years in Bushire and after the Sheikh passed away in 1830 that David and his family moved to Bombay, India
Bombay: a cosmopolitan port city and capital of a presidency
It was in 1832 that David Sassoon and his family arrived in Bombay and nailed the Jewish mezuzah on the doorpost of his home and office at 9 Tamarind Lane, inside the Fort area. David’s father had a carefully cultivated network of contacts among merchant families across the Ottoman Empire and Iran and through them he had contacts in Bombay too. Bombay already had a small community of Baghdadi merchants and a community of Marathi speaking Bene Israel Jews, who had come to the city to join the Bombay army. The Bombay Baghdadi merchants were involved in the Indian Ocean dhow trade, with a community network spread across coastal port cities in West Asia, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and smaller communities in the subcontinent. David’s interactions with British residents in Baghdad, Basra and later Bushire, confirmed the trade intelligence he had gathered from merchants that Bombay islands under the English East India Company’s administration and policy of freedom to trade with minimal tariffs and taxes, religious freedom, law and order, and political stability, would be an ideal place to live and do business. David was a banker and a trader.
Bombay’s resident Jewish community in 1832
There was already a small Baghdadi Jewish community in Bombay when David Sassoon arrived. Baghdadi Jews, originating from Baghdad, Basra, Aleppo, and other Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire, came to India as early as the 16th century and established their first settlement in the Mughal port city of Surat. By the late eighteenth century they settled in English colonial cities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Poona. They are referred to as Baghdadi because they followed the liturgy of Baghdad, a centre of Jewish learning. The first Baghdadi Jew to settle in Bombay was Joseph Semah, who moved here from Surat in 1730.. Baghdadi Jews were known as a business community under British rule though many of them worked as employees in the businesses of the wealthy Baghdadi merchants.
Bombay city also possessed a native Jewish community, the Bene Israel (lit. Children of Israel), who hailed from the villages of the coastal Konkan region south of Bombay islands. There were also a few Malabar Jews from the princely state of Cochin resident here.
David Sassoon’s homes in Bombay
David Sassoon began life in India at 9 Tamarind Lane, his first home. It is believed that 9 Tamarind Lane was the address of an old counting house where the newly arrived David Sassoon first started his trading company. Today, only a small stretch of Tamarind Lane exists and it is difficult to ascertain exactly where Sassoon’s first home was located.
Later, Sassoon and his family like other indigenous wealthy merchant families, shifted to the erstwhile ‘Shin Sangoo’ palace, with 8 acres of gardens in Byculla, which he renamed as ‘Sans Souci’ meaning 'without worries'. This palatial home which boasted a grand staircase and crystal chandeliers became a gathering place for the Baghdadi Jewish community and religious services and studies were carried out here. It was only in 1902 when most of the Sassoons had shifted to England that the family transferred ‘San Souci’ to the Masina Hospital Trust to establish the Masina Hospital
The Sassoon business empire in Bombay
David Sassoon brought to Bombay’s commercial world his traditional trading and banking networks across the Middle East. The city, therefore, became a hub for Baghdadi Jewish business and community life. This began a virtuous cycle of migration to Bombay for Baghdadi Jews fleeing political persecution and famines, and those seeking jobs in David Sassoon & Sons which was first set at his home at 9 Tamarind Lane within the bastions of the Fort of Bombay.
It is almost as if the stars were fortuitously aligned on the arrival of David Sassoon to Bombay in 1832 as the city was on the brink of great economic success. Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy a contemporary of Sassoon believed the other reason for David Sassoon’s success were his eight capable sons – all of who were sent overseas for field experience and rotated between various branch offices of the growing transnational Sassoon empire.
David Sassoon was astute enough to combine both to his advantage: he leveraged economic opportunities that political events of the mid-19th century offered by strategically locating his agents, inevitably his capable sons and fellow Baghdadi Jews, in key locations.
One was the very lucrative trade in metals, muslins, cotton and opium from Bombay and Calcutta to China. The two ensuing Opium Wars with China from 1839 to1842, and the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, secured the opium trade for the English East India Company and the merchant princes from Bombay. In fact, David Sassoon had the foresight to station his second son Elias in Shanghai for 12 years from 1844, to personally supervise business on the China end.
Second, he did the same as regards England; he stationed his third son, Sassoon David in England just three years before the American Civil War broke out from 1861 to 1865, and the demand for Indian cotton to feed the Lancashire mills led to a wild economic boom in Bombay. Sassoon & Sons were always one step ahead of the competition because of the reliable information they received.
Whatever the opportunities one business mantra Sassoon stuck to whatever was the temptation to the contrary was always ‘to ride the second wave’ which means that he never entered a business till it was tried and tested by others. This is most evident in the China trade which he entered only after the First Opium War, a time when most Bombay merchants in this trade had gone insolvent.
The Sassoon trading empire was divided between his two oldest sons – Albert (Abdullah) and Elias -- after the patriarch’s death on 3 November 1864. Albert headed the original firm of David Sassoon & Sons, while Elias founded E.D. Sassoon & Co. that went on to become the biggest millowner in Bombay