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 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
In 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.
^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
^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)
