Roustam Raza

Roustam Raza

"Portrait of Roustam Raza, the mamluck of Napoleon", 1810
Born Rostam
1783
Tiflis, Kartli
Died December 7, 1845 (aged 6162)
Dourdan, France
Ethnicity Armenian[1]
Citizenship France
Spouse(s) Alexandrine Douville
Children Achille
Depiction of Roustam Raza in traditional mamluk uniform.

Roustam Raza, also known as Roustan or Rustam (1783 – 7 December 1845), was Napoleon's mamluk bodyguard.[2] Roustam was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Armenian parents. At thirteen Roustam was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Cairo. The Turks gave him the name Idzhahia. The sheikh of Cairo presented him to General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. Roustam served as a bodyguard of Napoleon until 1814, when he married Mademoiselle Douville in Dourdan and refused to follow the Emperor in his exile to Elba after the first Bourbon Restoration.[3][4]

On 7 December 1845, Roustam died in Dourdan.[5] His memoirs of the service to Napoleon were first published in 1888.

See also

References

  1. Souvenirs de Roustam…: «Il m’a beaucoup regardé, en me disant si je parle Arménien ? Je dis que oui, mème j'élais Arménien. Il me dit en mème langage»
  2. "NAPOLEON AS HIS MAMELUKE SERVANT SAW HIM; Memoirs of Roustam Come to Light---Intimate Anecdotes of the Emperor by His Personal Attendant, Whom Bonaparte Brought Back with Him from Egypt and Who Served Him for 17 Years". The New York Times. 7 May 1911.
  3. Roustam, mameluck de Napoléon. D'après des mémoires et de nombreux documents inédits tirés des Archives Nationales et des Archives du ministère de la Guerre. [Ed.Hector Fleischmann]. — Paris: Albert Méricant, 1910. — 384 pp. (French)
  4. Alexander Mikaberidze (September 9, 2001). "The Georgian Mameluks in Egypt". www.napoleon-series.org.
  5. Registre d'état civil de Dourdan (1845), Archives départementales de l'Essonne

External links


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