Sir Sassoon Eskell KBE |
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ساسون حسقيل | |
Sir Sassoon Eskell
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Deputy for the Iraqi Parliament | |
In office 1925–1932 |
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Monarch | Faisal I of Iraq |
Constituency | Baghdad |
Minister of Finance | |
In office 1 September 1921 – 1925 |
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Monarch | Faisal I of Iraq |
Prime Minister |
Yasin al-Hashimi Jafar al-Askari Abd al-Muhsin as-Sa'dun Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani |
Personal details | |
Born |
Sassoon Eskell 17 March 1860 Baghdad, Ottoman Iraq |
Died | 31 August 1932 Paris, France |
(aged 72)
Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris |
Citizenship | Iraqi |
Profession | Statesman, Financier |
Religion | Jewish |
Sir Sassoon Eskell, KBE (17 March 1860 – 31 August 1932) was an Iraqi statesman and financier. Also known as Sassoon Effendi (from Turkish Effendi, a title meaning Lord). Regarded in Iraq as the Father of Parliament, Sir Sassoon (Arabic: ساسون حسقيل or ساسون حزقيال) was the first Minister of Finance in the Kingdom and a permanent Member of Parliament until his death. Along with Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence, he was instrumental in the creation and the establishment of the Kingdom of Iraq post Ottoman rule, and he founded the nascent Iraqi government’s laws and financial structure.
He was knighted by King George V in 1923. King Faisal I conferred on him the Civil Rafidain Medal Grade II, the Shahinshah awarded him the Shirokhorshid Medal and the Ottoman Empire decorated him with the Al-Moutamayez Medal.
Scion of an ancient, distinguished and aristocratic Jewish family of great affluence, the Shlomo-David’s, Sassoon was born on 17 March 1860 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was a cousin of the celebrated English war poet and author Siegfried Sassoon, through their common ancestor, Heskel Elkebir (1740–1816). His father was Hakham Heskel, Shalma, Ezra, Shlomo-David, a student of Hakham Abdallah Somekh. In 1873 Heskel travelled to India to become the Chief Rabbi and Shohet of the thriving Baghdadi Jewish Community there. In 1885 he returned to Baghdad as the leading rabbinical authority and a great philanthropist. A wealthy man, in 1906 he built Slat Hakham Heskel, one of the most prominent synagogues in Baghdad.
Sassoon obtained his primary education at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Baghdad. In 1877, at age 17, he travelled to Constantinople to continue his education, accompanied by his maternal uncle, the immensely wealthy magnate and land owner Menahem Saleh Daniel who was elected deputy for Baghdad to the first Ottoman Parliament in 1876 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and later became Senator of the Kingdom of Iraq (1925–1932). Sassoon then went to London and Vienna at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna to receive his higher education in economics and law. He was known to have been an outstanding student. He finally returned to Constantinople to obtain another law degree.