Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard

The Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard was a cavalry squadron of Napoleon I's Imperial Guard.

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. Napoleon's famous bodyguard Roustam Raza was also 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 during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. In the so-called "Instructions" that Bonaparte gave to Jean Baptiste Kléber 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.

On 14 September 1799 Kléber established a mounted company of Mamluk auxiliaries and Syrian Janissaries from Turkish troops captured at the siege of Acre. Menou reorganized the company on 7 July 1800, forming 3 companies of 100 men each and renaming it the "Mamluks de la République".

In 1801 General Jean Rapp was sent to Marseille to organize a squadron of 250 Mamluks. On 7 January 1802 the previous order was canceled and the squadron reduced to 150 men. The list of effectives on 21 April 1802 reveals 3 officers and 155 other ranks. By decree of 25 December 1803 the Mamluks were organized into a company attached to the Chasseurs-à-Cheval of the Imperial Guard. The officers were Frenchmen, the privates were Greeks, Egyptians, Georgians and Turks. Every Mameluk was armed with two brace of pistols, a very curved saber, dagger, mace and eventually a battle-ax.

In 1804 the company of Mamelukes had: 9 officers (6 of whom are Arabs), 10 NCO (6 of whom are Arabs), 10 brigadiers (8 of whom are Arabs), 2 trumpeters and 92 privates.

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