Roustam Raza


Roustam Raza, also known as Roustan or Rustam, was Napoleon's mamluk bodyguard and secondary valet.

Early life

Roustam was born in Tiflis, Kingdom of Kartli, 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, during the French invasion of Egypt.

In the service of Napoleon

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. On ceremonial occasions, such as the coronation of 1804, Roustom would be in attendance dressed in full "oriental" costume.

Later life

In 1814 Roustan married Mademoiselle Douville in Dourdan and refused to follow the Emperor in his exile to Elba after the first Bourbon Restoration. According to Raza's memoirs, he offered his service to Napoleon during the Hundred Days, but the recently re-crowned 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.
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 auto-biography about his time in Napoleon's Service.
On 7 December 1845, Roustam died in Dourdan. His memoirs of his service to Napoleon were first published in 1888.