PERSIAN-- TUTI-NAMA. Tales of a Parrot; Done into English, from a Persian manuscript, intitled Tooti Namêh. by a teacher of the Persic, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, Greek, Latin, Italian, French and English languages. 2 ff., [v]-xiii, [3], 188 pp. (fol. B6 in duplicate). 8vo., 223 x 136 mm, bound in contemporary drab boards, rebacked with cream paper spine, printed spine label, edges uncut. London: Printed for the Translator, at the Minerva Press, 1792.

First Edition in English. Modelled on The Thousand and One Nights, the Tuti-Nama ("Tales of a Parrot") is a collection of fables first compiled in India in the sixth century A.D. It was later translated into Persian during Ala-ud-din Khilji's time (1296-1316). In the process, Muslim characters replaced the Hindu ones. In this popular work the parrot recites tales to his mistress in order to prevent her from being unfaithful to her absent husband. These stories form the crux of the Indian storytelling tradition.

This is the rare Minerva Press edition, translated by B. Gerrans from a Persian compilation by Ziya ul-Din Nakhshabi. Twelve "Parrot tales," many concerning love and infidelity, appear herein (later editions contain as many as seventy). Whereas the final page states "End of the first Volume" no more were published by the Minerva Press. With early bookseller's label: "Peter Doyle, Bookseller, 6 South 10th Street, Philadelphia."

British Museum Catalogue of Persian MSS II, 753. Blakey, Minerva Press 1790-1810, p. 77.