Miniature from a copy of the Tutinama (Tales of a Parrot). ‘The Sheikh with the Talking Parrot of Wood and the Mute Copy’
The miniature comes from a copy of the “Tales of a Parrot” that was originally in the Great Mughals’ library, but most of which is now found in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.
The Tutinama consists of 52 stories told by a parrot to its owner to keep her at home. The motif refers to an intrigue in which three men, each of whom is having an affair with the wife of one of the others, try to cheat one another in various ways.
The scene is played out in an Indian interior with red-sandstone architecture and with the characteristic lobed tops of doors and niches. The visitor is wearing a flat Mughal turban and a katar-type dagger.
The Tutinama consists of 52 stories told by a parrot to its owner to keep her at home. The motif refers to an intrigue in which three men, each of whom is having an affair with the wife of one of the others, try to cheat one another in various ways.
The scene is played out in an Indian interior with red-sandstone architecture and with the characteristic lobed tops of doors and niches. The visitor is wearing a flat Mughal turban and a katar-type dagger.