Moorish Master Mason

"An Austrian named Angelo Soliman (1720-1796), who is said to be a native of Central Africa where he was kidnapped at a young age and later presented in 1734 to Prince Georg Christian. Soliman served as Georg’s confidant, however, as he grew older, Soliman became fluent in 6 languages, was a master swordsman, navigator and renowned music composer.

In his adult life, he climbed to the top of Vienna’s high society and joined Concord Freemason’s lodge where he became a major intellectual influence on Austrian Emperor Joseph II, Count Franz Moritz von Lacy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Josef Haydn. According to the Moorish Rite, he was the “Father of Pure Masonic Thought,” “First Moorish Freemason,” and a “patriarchal figure.”

In 1783, he joined the Masonic lodge "True Harmony", 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. Soliman is still celebrated in Massonic rites as "Father of Pure Masonic Thought", with his name usually transliterated as "Angelus Solimanus".

Neither his social standing nor his membership in the Freemasons could prevent his posthumous exploitation, leading to his ultimate status as the "mummified Moor".

Instead of a receiving a Christian burial, Soliman was – at the request of the director of the Imperial Natural History Collection – skinned, stuffed and made into an exhibit within this cabinet of curiosities. Decked out in ostrich feathers and glass beads, this mummy was on display until 1806 alongside stuffed animals, transformed from a reputable member of intellectual Viennese society into an exotic specimen.

By stripping Soliman of the insignia of his lifetime achievements, ethnologists instrumentalized him as what they imagined to be an exemplary African "savage". Soliman's daughter Josefine sought to have his remains returned to the family, but her petitions were in vain. During the October revolution of 1848, the mummy burned. A plaster cast of Soliman's head made shortly after his death of a stroke in 1796 is still on display in the Rollett Museum in Baden. His grandsons are Eduard von Feuchtersleben, Austrian writer, and Ernst, Baron von Feuchtersleben, Austrian physician." -- Wikipedia