Roustam Raza

Roustam Raza, also known as Roustan or Rustam (1783 – 7 December 1845), was Napoleon's mamluk bodyguard. 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. Roustan 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.

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

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