Roustam Raza (Armenian: Ռուստամ Ռազա; 1783 – 7 December 1845), also known as Roustan or Rustam, was a mamluk bodyguard and secondary valet of Napoleon.[1]
Roustam Raza | |
|---|---|
| Ռուստամ Ռազա | |
 Le Mamelouk Roustam Raza by Jacques-Nicolas Paillot de Montabert, 1806 | |
| Born | Rostam 1783 |
| Died | December 7, 1845 (aged 61–62) |
| Citizenship | France |
| Spouse | Alexandrine Douville |
| Children | Achille |
Early life
editRoustam was born in Tiflis, Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia). He was of Armenian origin.[2][3][4] At thirteen he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cairo. The Turks gave him the name "Idzhahia". The Sheikh of Cairo presented him to General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, during the French campaign in Egypt.
In the service of Napoleon
edit
Roustam served Napoleon for fifteen years, travelling with the First Consul and subsequent Emperor on all of his campaigns. The mamluk's role was that of a personal attendant, taking care of Napoleon's weapons and clothing, and supervising the serving of his meals. Acting as a bodyguard he slept near to the emperor.[5] On ceremonial occasions, such as the coronation of 1804, Roustam would be in attendance dressed in full "oriental" costume.
Later life
editIn 1814 Roustam married Mademoiselle Douville in Dourdan and refused to follow the Emperor in his exile to Elba after the first Bourbon Restoration.[6][7] He offered his service to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, but the emperor refused to even receive him and spoke bitterly of Raza's "betrayal" in his recollections written at St. Helena.
Raza later claimed that he feared Napoleon would commit suicide and that he would be blamed for his death. He cited this as the reason he left Napoleon during the marshals' revolt, just prior to the emperor's abdication.[8] Raza's position as second valet was filled during the Hundred Days restoration by his former assistant and the Imperial Librarian, Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis, whom Napoleon took to calling Ali. Like Raza, Saint-Denis also wrote an autobiography about his time in Napoleon's Service.
On 7 December 1845, Roustam died in Dourdan.[9] His memoirs of his service to Napoleon were first published in 1888.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "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.
- ^ Raza & North 2017, chpt. I.
- ^ Sometimes, despite direct instructions in his memoirs (“'I returned to the Armenian quarter and found many acquaintances there, my mother met me (...) It was agreed that the Armenian boys would be taken away and the Georgians would be left behind. I was considered a Georgian and left with him.' '"), he is recorded as Georgian
- ^ Alexander Mikaberidze. The Georgian Mameluks in Egypt
- ^ Mansel, Philip (1987) The Eagle in Splendor: Napoleon I and His Court, pg. 35
- ^ 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. (in French)
- ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (September 9, 2001). "The Georgian Mameluks in Egypt". www.napoleon-series.org.
- ^ "Louis Étienne Saint-Denis: Napoleon's French Mameluke - Shannon Selin". Shannon Selin. 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
- ^ Registre d'état civil de Dourdan (1845), Archives départementales de l'Essonne
Bibliography
edit- Fleischmann, Hector (1911). Roustam mameluck de Napoléon. Albert Méricant.
- Masson, Frédéric (1911). Souvenirs de Roustam, mamelouck de Napoléon I. Paul Ollendorff.
- Raza, Roustam; Ghazarians, Ara (2014). The Memoirs of Roustam: Napoleon's Mamluk Imperial Bodyguard. Translated by Carpenter, Catherine. Bennett & Bloom. ISBN 978-1908755223.
- Raza, Roustam; North, Jonathan (2017). Napoleon's Mameluke: The Memoirs of Roustam Raza. Enigma Books. ISBN 978-1936274727.
External links
edit- Roustam Raza's memoirs online (in Russian)
- Souvenirs de Roustam, mamelouck de Napoléon Ier Introduction et notes de Paul Cottin (in French)
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