page_title: Baghdadi Jews
section_title: Colonial Asia
hierarchical_section_title: Baghdadi Jews / Colonial Asia
caption_attribution_description: English: David Joseph Ezra, Baghdadi Jewish merchant and community leader of Calcutta.
context_page_description: The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Indo-Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
  Beginning under the Mughal Empire in the 18th century, merchant traders from Baghdad and Aleppo established originally Judeo-Arabic speaking Jewish communities in India, then in a trading network across Asia, following Mizrahi Jewish customs. These flourished under the British Empire in the 19th century, growing to be English-speaking and British oriented.
  These grew into a tight trading and kinship network across Asia with smaller Baghdadi communities being established beyond India in the mid-nineteenth century in Burma, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Baghdadi trading outposts were established across colonial Asia with families settling in Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. Until the Second World War, these communities attracted a modest flow of Jewish emigrants from Iraq, with smaller numbers hailing from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iran, and Turkey.
context_section_description: As Jews, primarily from Baghdad, Basra and Aleppo came to India as traders in the wake of the Portuguese, Dutch and British what became known as the Baghdadi communities grew fast. By the middle of the 19th century trade between Baghdad and India was said to be entirely in Jewish hands. Within a generation Baghdadi Jews had established manufacturing and commercial houses of fabulous wealth, most notably the Sassoon, Ezra, Elias, Belilios, Judah and Meyer families.
  With the rise of British power in India, Surat declined in importance as British-controlled Calcutta and Bombay became more important in trade.  Baghdadi settlement shifted first to Bombay and then principally to Calcutta, then the capital of British India and the centre of the jute, muslin, and opium trades. Jewish merchants from Aleppo, traditionally the end of the historic caravan route from India, played an important role in founding the Calcutta Jewish cemetery, which was opened in 1812.
  Spurred by the immigration of some the leading Jewish families of Baghdad fleeing the persecution of Dawud Pasha, the first synagogue, replacing a small prayer room, was opened in 1823, and with the community expanding quickly a second followed in 1856. By the end of the 19th century, more than 1,800 Baghdadi Jews were living in Calcutta. In 1884, a third synagogue, which was to be the largest in Asia, was dedicated in Calcutta. Baghdadi Jews were also living and trading in Chinsura and Chandernagore outside Calcutta.
  The rise of colonial Calcutta saw the rise of opium trade with China. British rule turned opium into a global commodity, establishing a monopoly over the sale of Indian opium in 1773, actively promoting its export, defying Chinese drug laws and fighting two wars to open the Chinese market. Baghdadi Jewish merchants dominated the opium trade with a majority of opium chests auctioned from British authorities being exported to China by Baghdadi Jewish merchants, who competed with Marwari and Parsee merchants for the trade. The Sassoon family eventually controlled 70 percent of the opium trade from India. Great fortunes were also made in the indigo, silk and muslin trade with Dhaka where Baghdadi Jews partnered with Bengali Muslim merchants.
  Around these booming concerns, the Baghdadi Jewish communities of India began to take shape, both seeking and attracting Jewish immigrants from across the Middle East to work for them. Following the shift in the centre of British rule from Bombay to Bengal the Baghdadi community of Bombay initially lagged that emerging in Calcutta. This fortunes of the community were reversed when David Sassoon and his family arrived in 1833.
  Sponsored by the Sassoon family, the first synagogue opened in 1861 and the second in 1888. Distinct from Calcutta, whose settlement was principally Iraqi Jews and Syrian Jews, the Baghdadi Jewish community in Bombay drew significant Jewish immigration from Persian-speaking communities in Afghanistan, Bukhara and Iran as well Jewish families from Yemen. Jewish migrant were attracted from across the Middle East to work in the factories and business concerns of the Sassoon family. Outside Bombay a Baghdadi community was established in Poonawhere a synagogue, a school and hospital was established by David Sassoon by and for a Hebrew printing press was in operation. A Baghdadi presence is also recorded in Madras.
  From India, the community expanded to Burma, and the ports of Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. These were established along the opium route that ran between India and China. In Singapore the elders of the community were initially the sons of Ezekiel Judah of Calcutta. Meanwhile, the earliest Baghdadi Jew to settle in Burma was Azariah Samuel who arrived in the port of Sittwe on the Bay of Bengal in 1841. Around the same time two brothers Judah and Abraham Raphael Ezekiel settled in Mandalay and worked as bookkeepers for the Burmese royal court. From 1880 the community was permanently established, the trading success of other Baghdadi Jews in opium, teak, jute, and trading shops, attracted other Ba
caption: David Joseph Ezra, Baghdadi Jewish merchant and community leader of Calcutta, late 19th century.
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Photos 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2020:01:07 06:53:07", "Image ExifOffset": "134", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:01:07 06:53:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:01:07 06:53:07", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "768", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1107"}