Thursday, 14 April 2011

28mm Painted Napoleon Bodyguard Mameluk Roustam Raza.

.....the only napoleonic figure (from Wargames Foundry) I own now from a previous foray into 28mm napoleonics and my favourite.

Napoleon formed his own Mamluk corps, the last known Mamluk force, in the early years of the 19th century, and used Mamluks in a number of his campaigns. Even his Imperial Guard had Mamluk soldiers during the Belgian campaign, including one of his personal servants. Napoleon's famous bodyguard Roustam Raza was a Mamluk who had been sold in Egypt.


Throughout the Napoleonic era there was a special Mamluk corps in the French army. In his history of the 13th Chasseurs Colonel Descaves recounts how Napoleon used the Mamluks in Egypt. In the so-called "Instructions" that Bonaparte gave to Kleber after departure, Napoleon wrote that he had already bought from Syrian merchants about 2,000 Mamluks with whom he intended to form a special detachment.

Roustam was born in Tbilisi, Georgia to Armenian parents. At thirteen Roustan 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. Roustam served as a bodyguard of Napoleon until 1814, when he married Mademoiselle Douville in Dourdan, France and refused to follow the Emperor in his exile to Elba.On 7 December 1845, Roustam died in Dourdan.

More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk#Under_Napoleon



Roustam Raza

51 comments:

  1. Great looking figure Fran! And nice wee bio on the character.

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  2. that was an interesting read, thanks for providing

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  3. Lovely figure and painting.

    Cheers
    Christopher

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  4. Always cool to see figures based on real people

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  5. Very interesting. Taking a leaf out of Ray's book too. Next he'll be doing zombies. It's good to see you growing together.

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  6. Prtty perfect. Awesome figurine

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  7. Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about these guys, despite having an Osprey book on them.

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  8. Very interesting figures, awesome background info aswell ;D

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  9. Nice mini. I like the historical background on him too.

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  10. I like the post!!!

    $upporting BRO!!

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  11. Thanks for noticing Porkie!!!! I'm sick of Fran copying my ideas all the time, I did here him talking the other day about changing his name to Raymond!!
    Fran, why doesn't yours look like the man in the potrait????? LOL!!!!!

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  12. LOL...sorry I'm still laughing!!! LOL!!!!!! Do you still wanna lift to Salute??????LOL!

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  13. Kiss my ass Rousell, I'm the only real friend you have left.

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  14. Not so familiar with Roustam Raza. Thanks for the info.

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  15. I didn't know Napoleon had a bodyguard! Nice history lesson and nice figure :D

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  16. Meticulously painted as always.

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  17. Absolutely stunning mate!!!
    The red colour, is being painted magnificently!
    T.

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  18. Very cool figure and excellent paint job. Liked the info on him as well......wonder what a whole unit of them in 15mm would look like!! Thanks for sharing!

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  19. Wow, nice paint job, especially the face and metal work. Very cool to have the bio with him. Is it just me or is your painting getting better and better?

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  20. You did a real nice job with this one. Very intricate!

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  21. The resemblance is uncanny! :D

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  22. No worries, Ray. And you're probably more alike than you know. If you can't kiss each other's, whose can you kiss?

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  23. damn, you really translated the palette and art style well wtih your own unique painting. good jop

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  24. Porky, wash your mouth out, I ain't kissing anything of Ray's that I can't kick.

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  25. Nice figure and thanks for the info, hadn't looked into his back story before.
    Should be a fun car drive with you guys going to Salute!

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  26. I bet those are comfortable clothes in the summertime. They let the crotch breathe.

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  27. thanks for the history, I have been wondering this since I started into Napoleonics.

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  28. wouw really good! takes a lot of time?

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  29. he doesnt really look like that much of a badass

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  30. He needs some space marines back up ;)

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  31. Good stuff. He needs a jump pack.

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  32. He had a hell of a life. I don't blame him one bit for staying home from that 100 days fiasco. Hmm, let's see. Stay home with some nookie or get slaughtered? No choice.

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  33. That dude looks like a boss

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  34. Wow i got mixed up, i thought you where speaking of Rostam the legendary Persian warrior that killed dragons and had the strength of 10 men he cool stuff and thx for the history lesson

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  35. this is one of my favourites till today

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  36. Very interesting...lots of licking and a well painted not zombie future shock fig with a bit of history. Fran...your slipping :-D
    Cheers
    paul

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  37. I usually don't favor Napoleonics figures (what can I say, we fantasy gamers like bright colors and shiny objects?) but this guy is the exception to the rule that historicals aren't as visually appealing as dwarves and orcs. Brilliant fig.

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  38. He refused to follow him into exile? I bet that went over pretty well with the wee emperor...

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  39. like this stuff, following to learn more (noob)

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  40. not only we get to see the great work you do on the figures, we also learn history. I didn´t knew about the Mamluk Corps. thanks for the info.

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  41. Seems like he was an interesting guy

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  42. Cool post and great info - I've got something for you on my blog

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  43. good job Lurker, colourful figure.

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  44. looks like the guy from djengis khan

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  45. Cool piece of history you don't read much about. I liked the figurines. Neat. Have a great weekend, man.

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