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Dr. Kaempfer's Album of Persian Costumes and Animals
A royal bodyguard and a palace usher, 1684-5



008   a palace usher (right) and a royal bodyguard (left). Usher stands, legs widely separated, holding an axe-like object in one while while resting his other hand upon the sash tied around his waist. Opposite stands the royal bodyguard, leaning against a long cane held in one hand, while the other plays with his moustache. The bodyguard is dressed in a long robe with an elaborate, feathered headdress. [See Picture 98 from the Ralamb album for a figure with a similar hat to the royal bodyguard] [The usher may be the equivalent of the Ottoman Peik].




Referenced by “Part 18 - Persians and other easterners” by George Gush in Renaissance Warfare, Airfix magazine:
cPersian 'halberdier', 17th Century. He might well be some kind of guardsman. He has a felt hat and carries an axe of very characteristic shape. Hat red, crown grey, plumes black; black and white shirt; purple coat with black frogging; tight green trousers; white 'socks'; brown shoes; red sash.

See also Musketeers in Dr. Kaempfer's Album of Persian Costumes and Animals, 1684-5
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Similar figures to the bodyguard in Shah Abbas I receiving Vali Nadr Muhammad Khan, Uzbek ruler of Turkistan, in a fresco in the main hall of the Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan, Persia