Abraham Salomon Camondo

Who was Abraham Salomon Camondo?

Count Abraham Camondo was a Jewish Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist and the patriarch of the Camondo family.

He was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire. In 1832 he inherited from his brother Isaac a fortune and was able to expand it greatly during his life. While Venice was under Austrian rule, he received as an Austrian subject the title of Chevalier of the Order of Francis Joseph. When Venice again became an Italian possession, Camondo, as a Venetian citizen, presented large gifts to several Italian philanthropic institutions, in recognition of which King Victor Emmanuel conferred upon him the title of count, with the privilege of transmitting it in perpetuity to the eldest son of the family.

Count Camondo's career in the Ottoman Empire was an extraordinary one. He exercised substantial influence with the sultans Abd-ul-Mejid I and Abd-ul-Aziz, and over the Ottoman grand viziers and ministers. He was banker to the Ottoman government before the founding of the Ottoman Bank. He obtained from the Porte a firman extending the privilege of possessing real estate in the empire, which until then had been restricted to subjects of the Ottoman Empire, to foreign nationals.