Angelo Soliman

Soliman probably belonged to the Magumi subset of the Kanuri ethnic group. His original name, Mmadi Make,[1] is linked to a princely class of the Bornu Empire (centred in Borno State, modern-day Nigeria). He was taken captive as a child and arrived in Marseilles as a slave. He was sold into the household of a Messinan marchioness, who oversaw his education. Out of affection for another servant in the household, Angelina, he adopted the name 'Angelo', and he chose to recognize September 11, his baptismal day, as his birthday. After repeated requests, he was given as a gift in 1734 to Prince Georg Christian, Prince von Lobkowitz, the imperial governor of Sicily. He became the Prince's valet and traveling companion, accompanying him on military campaigns throughout Europe and reportedly saving his life on one occasion, a pivotal event responsible for his social ascension. After the death of Prince Lobkowitz, Soliman was taken into the Vienna household of Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein, eventually rising to chief servant. Later, he became royal tutor of the heir to the Prince, Aloys I.[2][3] On February 6, 1768, he married the noblewoman Magdalena Christiani, a young widow and sister of the French general François Etienne de Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, a marshal of Napoleon Bonaparte.[4]

A cultured man, Soliman was highly respected in the intellectual circles of Vienna and counted as a valued friend by Austrian Emperor Joseph II and Count Franz Moritz von Lacy as well as Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici. Soliman attended the wedding of Emperor Joseph II and Princess Isabella of Parma as a guest of the Emperor.[5]

In 1783, he joined the Masonic lodge "True Concord" (Zur Wahren Eintracht), whose membership included many of Vienna's influential artists and scholars of the time, among them the musicians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn as well the Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy. Lodge records indicate that Soliman and Mozart met on several occasions. It is likely that the character Bassa Selim in Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio was based on Soliman. Eventually becoming the Grand Master of that lodge, Soliman helped change its ritual to include scholarly elements. This new Masonic direction rapidly influenced Freemasonic practice throughout Europe.[6] Soliman is still celebrated in Masonic rites as "Father of Pure Masonic Thought", with his name usually transliterated as "Angelus Solimanus".[7]

During his lifetime Soliman was regarded as a model to the "potential for assimilation" of Africans in Europe, but after his death his image was subject to defamation and vulgarization through Scientific racism, and his body was physically rendered into a specimen, as if an animal or for experimentation. Wigger and Klein distinguish four aspects of Soliman – the "royal Moor", the "noble Moor", the "physiognomic Moor" and the "mummified Moor".[8] The first two designations refer to the years prior to his death. The term "royal Moor" designates Soliman in the context of enslaved Moors at European courts, where their skin color marked their inferiority and they figured as status symbols betokening the power and wealth of their owners. Bereft of his ancestry and original culture, Soliman was degraded to an "exotic-oriental sign of his lord's standing" who was not allowed to live a self-determined existence. The designation "noble Moor" describes Soliman as a former court Moor whose ascent up the social ladder due to his marriage with an aristocratic woman made his emancipation possible. During this time Soliman became a member of the Freemasons and as lodge Grand Master was certainly considered equal to his fellow Masons even though he continued to face a thicket of race and class prejudices.

Soliman spoke 6 languages fluently as well as his home language Kanuri.[13]

• Latin - Fluent
• English - Fluent
• French - Fluent
• German - Fluent
• Italian - Fluent
• Czech - Fluent
• Kanuri - Fluent

Soliman's 4x great-grandson is Australian film director Karl von Möller and 4x great-granddaughter is Australian Philanthropist Katrina Holmes à Court.

• In 2010, Blackamoor Angel, an opera with book and libretto by Carl Hancock Rux and music by Deidre Murray performed, in part, at Bard Spiegeltent and the Joseph Papp Public Theater under the direction of Karin Coonrod[14]
• In 2019 Angelo, a movie biopic based on his life, was released.
• Flights by the Polish novelist Olga Tokarczuk includes three (presumably) fictional letters by Soliman's daughter Josefine to the Austrian Emperor Francis II.[15]
• In 2014, the Hungarian writer Gergely Péterfy published the historical novel "Kitömött barbár," translated into German in 2016 as "Der ausgestopfte Barbar" ("The stuffed barbarian"), based on the life of Ferenc Kazinczy, Soliman's friend, and his and his widow's quest to see the mummified body of Soliman in person.