The Parrot and the Merchant

by Marjan Vafaeian, Marjan Vafaeian (Illustrator)

Overview

Mah Jahan is a rich merchant who travels far and wide to trade her goods, and keeps countless colorful birds in cages. When leaving for India, she promises to bring back gifts for all her servants, and for her favorite talking parrot. All that the parrot requests is for her to go to the jungle, greet his friends and ask if they have any messages for him. But when she delivers their message, she learns an important lesson about how to treat the ones you love

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781910328033
Publisher:	Tiny Owl Publishing
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Series:	A Tale by Rumi Series
Edition description:	Illustrate
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

Retold by Marjan Vafaeian and translated by Azita Rassi, this story is a retelling of one of Rumi’s fables. Rumi was a great 13th-century Persian Sufi mystic and poet. This story comes from his book Masnavi, which explains philosophical and mystical concepts through beautiful, metaphorical allegories containing mystical points as well as wisdom and advice.

Marjan Vafaeian is an award-winning illustrator from Iran. Her illustrations are elaborate,
forming a visually rich tapestry, unique in style. As well as winning awards in Iran for her illustrations, she was shortlisted for the Hakka International Picture Book Award in 2017
and won the Noma Concours Encouragement Prize in 2006.

Read an Excerpt

Long ago in Persia there lived a merchant called Mah Jahan. Mah Jahan travelled far and wide, buying and selling beautiful things. The beautiful things that Mah Jahan collected for herself on her journeys were beautiful birds. She kept them in cages or chains so that they couldn’t fly away and leave her.

Mah Jahan’s favourite bird of all was a beautiful bright parrot that she had brought back from India. She loved that parrot best of all her birds because the parrot had learned to talk.

Mah Jahan was about to go and trade in India again. She asked her servants, “What would you like me to bring you back as a gift?” Each of them told her what they wanted.

Then Mah Jahan went to see her parrot. She said, “Tell me what I can bring you to make you happy.” The parrot put its head on one side. Then it said, “Please say hello to my parrot friends in India. Tell them that I miss them, and that makes me sad. Ask them if they have any advice for me.”

“I will,” promised Mah Jahan.

Mah Jahan bid goodbye to her servants and her birds, and she and her workers set off with a caravan of camels loaded with goods to be traded. In India Mah Jahan sold all that she had brought from Persia, and she bought Indian goods to sell when she got home. She bought the gifts for her servants. Mah Jahan was packed and ready to head back home when she remembered the promise that she had made to her parrot. So Mah Jahan went into the Indian jungle where parrots lived wild and free.

Editorial Reviews

06/28/2019

Gr 3 Up-Based on a short tale from Masnavi, a collection of stories written by the 13th-century poet Rumi, this fablelike lesson teaches that true happiness can sometimes be achieved by doing something that will bring joy and love to another being. Mah Jahan travels to places "far and wide, buying and selling beautiful things." For herself, she collects beautiful birds that she keeps caged or chained so they cannot fly away. As she prepares for a business trip to India, she asks her many servants and her favorite talking parrot what gifts she can bring them. While the servants ask for tangible gifts, the bird requests only some advice from its Indian friends that might help to cure the sadness that comes from missing them. Vafaeian has illustrated the tale in a folk art style with joyful quiltlike patterns in somewhat subdued blues, greens, reds, and browns on clothing and birds set against crisp white pages. The servants, both humans and camels, painted in shades of pale tan and gray, appear flat, ghostly, and grim. Mah Jahan is, oddly, one-eyed until she begins to understand that freedom can bring happiness. VERDICT Rumi's story, briefly and beautifully presented, carries a profound lesson that invites discussion.-Susan Scheps, formerly at Shaker Public Library, OH

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