Shanghai's richest landlord left everything to his Eurasian Buddhist widow, his Iraqi relatives sued, and the People's Republic closed the case in 1957

Silas Aaron Hardoon was born around 1851 to a poor Jewish family in Baghdad and attended a school in Bombay funded by David Sassoon. In 1868 he went to Shanghai as a rent collector and watchman for David Sassoon and Company. He later managed E. D. Sassoon's Shanghai branch and bought property on Nanking Road, which made him one of the city's richest men. In 1886 he married Luo Jialing, known as Liza Roos, born in Shanghai to a Chinese mother and a French father, in Jewish and Chinese ceremonies. She was a devout Buddhist. They lived at Aili Park, a 26-acre estate, and adopted many children. Hardoon died in June 1931; his fortune was estimated at $650 million^†. His will left everything to Liza. His Iraqi relatives challenged it on religious and national grounds in the British Supreme Court for China, with a side action in Baghdad. In 1937 the court ruled for Liza. She died in 1941. Disputes delayed her funeral until 12 November 1941; about 20,000 people attended, and she was buried beside him. Japanese forces occupied the city centre weeks later, and in 1943 fire swept the gardens. The adopted children reached a settlement in 1946. After 1949 Ezra Salch Hardoon kept petitioning for the Iraqi relatives. In 1956 the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court ruled that, because of Liza's debts, it would secure the whole estate, and in June 1957 it closed the case. The Aili Park site is now the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.