Payk

A payk was a groom running on foot, heralding his master on horse in medieval Persia. The figure of the payk appears in many Persian medieval miniatures, and it became a stock figure. The payk' already appears in 1386-88 in the Khamsa of Nizami (British Library, Or.13297), or in 1396 miniatures commissioned by Jalayirid rulers, such as a Kalila and Dimna (1375-1385, Tabriz), or under Sultan Ahmad (ruled 1382–1410) at the end of the 14th century, in works such as Khwaju Kirmani's mathnavis (1396). The payk is generally bare-legged, and equipped with a semi-circular axe.

Shah Rukh on horse (right) is depicted making a triumphal entrance in Samarkand in 1394, after Timur named him Governor of the city. He is preceded by a customary Payk groom running on foot. Contemporary miniature, commissioned by Shah Rukh's son Ibrahim Sultan in his Zafarnama of 1436.
"The New King Paraded around the Town on a White Elephant", Kalila and Dimna, 1375-1385, Tabriz. Topkaki Saray Museum, H.362
Timurid ruler Muhammad Juki preceded by two bare-legged running payk heralds (contemporary painting circa 1440)

References

1 2 3 4 Sims, Eleanor (1992). Timurid art and culture: Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth century ("Ibrahim-Sultan’s Illustrated Zafarnama of 1436 and its Impact in the Muslim East"). Leiden Boston: Brill. doi:10.1163/9789004662551_014. ISBN 9789004662551. The well-known Freer Gallery painting is actually only the right half of a double-page composition showing the triumphal entry into Samarqand made by Shahrukh in Dhu'I-Hijja 796 (September 1394), after Timur appointed him governor of that city.
↑ Sims, Eleanor; Marshak, Boris Ilʹich; Grube, Ernst J.; I, Boris Marshak (1 January 2002). Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its Sources. Yale University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-300-09038-3.
↑ Sims, Eleanor (2002). Peerless images : Persian painting and its sources. New Haven : Yale University Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-300-09038-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
↑ Sircar, Dineschandra (1986). Deyadharma: Studies in Memory of Dr. D.C. Sircar. Sri Satguru Publications. p. 54. ISBN 978-81-7030-021-2.