A PROVINCE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, BAGHDAD IN THE 1820S WAS GOVERNED BY A WÃLI WHOSE habit was to make money by arresting members of the wealthiest families and demanding a ransom for their release. Among those detained was David Sassoon, a member of one of Baghdad’s most prominent Jewish families, whose father was the pasha’s treasurer. Upon the father paying his son’s ransom, David fled to Bushir in southern Iran in 1830. The following year, he took his family with him for a new life in Bombay.
As a refugee in a new land who had lost his wealth and status in Baghdad, David Sassoon chose to identify with the British Empire, then the world’s strongest power. When in 1853 he was granted British citizenship, he signed his oath of allegiance to the Empire and East India Company in Hebrew — for although he spoke Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Turkish as well as learning Hindustani, he
