Roustam Raza
Roustam Raza (actually Rostom Razmadze , Georgian როსტომ რაზმაძე , Armenian Ռուստամ Ռազա ; * around 1780 in Tbilisi , † December 7, 1845 in Dourdan ) was an Armenian-Georgian Mamluke and from 1799 to 1814 personal bodyguard to Napoléon Bonaparte .
Roustam was born in Georgia to an Armenian businessman and his Georgian wife. His family moved to his father's Armenian hometown when he was two years old. The youngster got caught in the turmoil of the Qajar conquest, was sold into slavery and acquired in Constantinople in 1797 by one of the Ottoman governors of Egypt, who made him one of his Mamluks. After the death of its owner, Roustam came to Cairo in the possession of Sheik El Bekri, a friend of Napoléon. In August 1799, shortly before Napoléon's return to France, he entered his service.
For the next fifteen years the Mamluke followed the consul and later Emperor of the French like a shadow on all campaigns from Spain to Russia. He served his master as servant and bodyguard alike; at night he slept right next to the Corsican's room. With his permission Roustam married the young Alexandrine Douville in 1806, daughter of the first chambermaid of Empress Joséphine . Napoléon personally paid for the celebration.
When the emperor had to abdicate in 1814 and planned to commit suicide, Roustam Raza ended his service for fear of being held responsible for the alleged impending poisonous death of Napoleon. When he again offered his services in the Hundred Days , the returnee refused out of incomprehension for his alleged disloyalty in the previous year.
The couple spent the following years in Paris, at the end of the 1820s they moved to Dourdan to live close to their in-laws at Alexandrine's request. Roustam Raza died there in 1845, he is buried in the local cemetery.
Roustam Raza leaves in his memories a picture of the immediate surroundings of the French emperor, drawn in anecdotes. He himself was often the subject of artistic representation in the First Empire , not only in portraits (e.g. Jacques-Nicolas Paillot de Montabert 1806, Horace Vernet 1810), but especially as a minor figure in the history paintings of his famous employer, on which he was easily identified by his turban can be recognized (e.g. Jacques-Augustin-Catherine Pajous Milde Napoléon towards the Miss of Saint-Simon 1812, Jean-Baptiste Debret's first award of the stars of the Legion of Honor 1810).
Works
- Souvenirs de Roustam, mamelouck de Napoléon Ier. Introduction et notes de Paul Cottin, Préface de Frédéric Masson. Paris: Paul Ollendorff, 1911. [1]
literature
- Hector Fleischmann (Ed.): 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. Paris: Albert Méricant, 1910.
- Charles Otto Zieseniss: Considérations sur l'iconographie du mamelouk Roustam . In: Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français , 1988
- Bruno Durand / Philippe Legendre Kvater: Roustam et son empereur, de l'Egypte à Dourdan . Société Historique de Dourdan, 2005.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Roustam Raza |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rozdom Razmadze |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Georgian Mamluk and Napoleon's bodyguard |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1780 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tbilisi |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 7, 1845 |
| Place of death | Dourdan |