Dear Arpa,
your Roustam's biography is correct until 1814, but wrong after.
After the fall of Napoleon's empire, Roustam never went back to Persia nor Tbilissi.
He stayed from 1814 to 1830 in Paris (I have the addresses)(except for a short 2 weeks travel to London in 1824). His wife's parents lived in a village near Dourdan (40 miles south of Paris) and moved to this town in 1827. Then from 1830 Roustam's wife insisted on him to stay beside her parent's home. The couple moved to Dourdan and rent a flat there (the house still exists). They stayed there until Roustam's death in 1845.
His grave remains in the Dourdan cemetery (It has been restored in 2001).
Roustam left Armenia when he was aged 13. His father Roustam Honan was Armenian from the town of Aperkan (who knows where it is, or what is the actual name of this town ?) , his mother Bouchid-Vari was Georgian. He was brought up from age of 2 to 13 in Armenia, so he can be considered as from Armenian origin, although he got born in Tbilissi.
His family was scattered during the Persian-Armenian War. He was taken and sold 7 times as a slave. Finally he arrived to Egypt and then met Bonaparte in 1799.
During the Empire, Napoleon sent messengers to try to find his mother or sister in Armenia, but in vain (his mother had also been taken and sold as a slave).
After the fall of french empire, Roustam was overlooked by the king's police, as suspected (like many others) to be a bonapartist supporter. Supposing he had any projects to go to Persia or Armenia, he would had to ask a visa permit to go there (and he would have get difficulties to get it). We should have documents about that in the french archives, and we don't have.
For his 2 weeks trip to England in 1824, we have a lot of documents and police reports.
Moreover, Roustam has written his memories by 1840 (published in 1911). In the text he says how disappointed he was during the empire for not having got any news from his mother and sister. Surely he would have told about a trip to Georgy or Armenia to find his family, and he does not mention anything about that.
In fact Roustam was a peaceful man, not a fighter nor a politician, and after 1814 he only wanted to retire and relax quietly, after 15 years on battlefields with Napoleon...
My association is publishing an illustrated album (in french) about Roustam's life.
From december 2005, see on www.histoiredourdan.org (website presently on process).
Best regards.
B. Durand,
Pdt of History Society of Dourdan (France)
PS : About Murat : of course he got born in France (south-west) ! There is no history discussion about that.
