This week, I read part B of Tales of a Parrot. Part B was comprised of stories told by the parrot, to his mistress, and each of them hold an important lesson. One that caught my attention was the story of the merchant and his daughter.
In this story, a merchant has a beautiful daughter that is trying to choose her future husband. Three suitors present themselves to the merchant on behalf of his daughter. The merchant communicated to his daughter the strengths of the three suitors and she began to deliberate on them. In the morning, the daughter was gone, and it was rumored that she had been stolen away by a fairy, destined to be kept far away from all men. Hearing this, the merchant assembled all three of the suitors to rescue her from a mountain top. One of the suitors had information on his daughter, one built a wooden horse, and one mounted the horse with his bows and arrows. Eventually, it was the third suitor, the archer, who killed the fairy and brought the daughter back to life. However, because they all contributed to rescuing the daughter, they all claimed their right to the girl.
I found this story particularly interesting because the parrot, as he does with most of the stories, uses this story as a tool for a specific use. Before telling this story to his mistress, he tells her to go to the house of her lover and relate to him the story of the merchant's daughter "in order to try his understanding". And after hearing this story, the parrot tells her to go and ask which of the suitors has the right to marry the woman, in order to see if he will give her a proper answer, which will allow her to be satisfied with his understanding. This use of a story as a tool to motivate/scare/encourage someone do carry out a specific task is a technique that is employed throughout this entire reading. I feel that this technique would be fun to use in a retelling of these stories in a different way. Currently, I'm thinking about either changing the stories in order to change the response that they provoke, or changing the narrator of the stories to change the audience!
The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801). The merchant whose daughter was lost
In this story, a merchant has a beautiful daughter that is trying to choose her future husband. Three suitors present themselves to the merchant on behalf of his daughter. The merchant communicated to his daughter the strengths of the three suitors and she began to deliberate on them. In the morning, the daughter was gone, and it was rumored that she had been stolen away by a fairy, destined to be kept far away from all men. Hearing this, the merchant assembled all three of the suitors to rescue her from a mountain top. One of the suitors had information on his daughter, one built a wooden horse, and one mounted the horse with his bows and arrows. Eventually, it was the third suitor, the archer, who killed the fairy and brought the daughter back to life. However, because they all contributed to rescuing the daughter, they all claimed their right to the girl.
I found this story particularly interesting because the parrot, as he does with most of the stories, uses this story as a tool for a specific use. Before telling this story to his mistress, he tells her to go to the house of her lover and relate to him the story of the merchant's daughter "in order to try his understanding". And after hearing this story, the parrot tells her to go and ask which of the suitors has the right to marry the woman, in order to see if he will give her a proper answer, which will allow her to be satisfied with his understanding. This use of a story as a tool to motivate/scare/encourage someone do carry out a specific task is a technique that is employed throughout this entire reading. I feel that this technique would be fun to use in a retelling of these stories in a different way. Currently, I'm thinking about either changing the stories in order to change the response that they provoke, or changing the narrator of the stories to change the audience!
The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801). The merchant whose daughter was lost
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