Картли-Кахетинское царство
Roustam was born in Tiflis, Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia), to Armenian parents. At thirteen he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cairo. The Turks gave him the name Idzhahia. The Sheikh of Cairo presented him to General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, during the French campaign in Egypt.