Roustam Raza was sold into slavery in Egypt, then given to General Napoleon Bonaparte in August 1799. For fifteen years, he was Napoleon's personal bodyguard, always with the emperor and sleeping across his doorway. His reminiscences include Russia in 1812 and life in the imperial palaces. He didn't follow Napoleon into exile in 1814. The memoirs contain a host of anecdotes on Napoleon and the Napoleonic world.

Jonathan North is a historian of the Napoleonic era. He has published With Napoleon in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Faber du Faur and Napoleon's Army in Russia: The Illustrated Memoirs of Albrecht Adam, 1812.