Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot Unit Reading A

Tales of a Parrot: The Parrot of Ferukh Beg

(The Parrot and Wife of Ferukh Beg: Web Source)

• Characters: Parrot, Khojisteh, the parrot of ferukh, Ferukh Beg, ferukh begs wife, moghul

• This story is a story within a story. This whole unit is about a parrot who keeps telling his master's wife stories about different subject, relating to how she's feeling to keep her from going to meet her lover and committing adultery. This story is about a wife who commits adultery while her husband is away. The parrot tells his master's wife this story to let her know he would keep her secret. In the story he tells, Ferukh Beg has two birds, has a parrot who he untrusted to watch over his home and his wife while he is gone. The parrot was a witness to the wife's affair, however when the master returned home, he said nothing, because he did not want to separate the man and wife. Unfortunately for the wife, the husband caught wind of the affair.The wife suspected the parrot of telling on her and plucked out his feather and threw him out the window, telling all her servant that a cat drug him out of the window. The parrot found refuge in a burying ground. when the merchant found that the parrot was missing, he became so enraged that he threw his wife out. Being embarrassed by this she too found refuge in the burying ground where she fasted for one day. In the meantime, the parrot whispered through a hole that if the woman shaved all of the hair off of her head and body and fast for forty days she would be reunited with her husband and her sins would be forgiven, so she did. One day the parrot came out of hiding and told the women it was he who commanded her to fast and shave. The parrot with regained strength, went to the husband and told him that some god commanded the woman to shave and fast for forty days and her sins would be forgiven and they would be reunited. Not wanting to disobey a god, the man retrieved his wife and they lived happily ever after. There are two ways I am thinking about changing this story, either changing it to be in the wife's perspective of creating a more harsh punishment for the wife, so in a sense changing the ending. Changing to the wife's  perspective would give the audience a more connected feeling to her and maybe even let the wife connect with Khojisteh, since she is wanting to commit the same sin. Changing the ending/punishment of the wife may scare khojisteh and make her not want to committing adultery anymore. I am not sure which I will choose, but I feel like either would bring a nice change to the story.

• Bibliography: Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi.The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot:The Parrot of Ferukh Beg. 1801. Web Source.