Abraham Salomon Camondo

In 1832, he inherited a banking business and a fortune from his brother Isaac (who had died in Vienna a year before), and he was able to expand it greatly during his lifetime, partly through real estate investment.

From his ancestors, who had settled in the Veneto, he had a cultural affinity with Italy and on 18 November 1865, he and all members of his family obtained Italian nationality.

Count Camondo exercised substantial influence with the sultans Abdülmecid I and Abdülaziz,[citation needed] and over the Ottoman grand viziers and ministers.

On account of this school, its benevolent founder was excommunicated by certain fanatical rabbis, and he endured otherwise much vexation; yet it flourished for thirty-two years and trained the majority of the Jewish officials then in the service of the Ottoman government.

Dying at the age of 92 in Paris, where he had relocated by 1869, le comte de Camondo (as he was known in France) was buried according to his final wishes in his family's vault at the Jewish cemetery in Hasköy,Istanbul.