Roustam Raza

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Roustam Raza.

Depiction of Roustam Raza in traditional mamluk uniform.

Roustam Raza (Rostom Razmadze, Georgian: როსტომ რაზმაძე), also known as Roustan or Rustam was Napoleon Bonaparte's famous mamluk bodyguard. Roustam was from Tbilisi, Georgia. Nickname "Raza" derives from the widespread Georgian surname "Razmadze". In his memoirs Roustam wrote that he was born in Tiflis (an old name of Tbilisi) and his father was a merchant. In some sources (mostly sources by Armenian authors) Roustam Raza is mistakenly considered as Armenian.

Roustam was kidnapped when he was a child and sold as a slave in Cairo. One of the local authorities presented a young slave to General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. Roustam served as a bodyguard of Napoleon until 1814, when Roustam married Mademoiselle Douville in Dourdan, France and refused to follow the Emperor in his exile to Elba.