Artwork
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page

Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page is an unspecified painting. It dates from 1560 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. This artifact is a single folio from the illustrated manuscript *Tales of a Parrot* (Tuti‑nama).
About this work
Overview
This artifact is a single folio from the illustrated manuscript *Tales of a Parrot* (Tuti‑nama). The page consists solely of densely packed black calligraphy arranged in tight, orderly rows, framed by a narrow red border. The paper, now aged to a pale tan, bears no pictorial decoration, presenting the narrative text in a compact, rhythmic layout.
Subject & Meaning
The script records a segment of the *Tales of a Parrot*, a literary work composed for Prince Salim. The story, conveyed through the parrot’s voice, intertwines moral instruction with courtly entertainment, reflecting the patron’s taste for didactic yet engaging narratives. The page’s uninterrupted flow of text emphasizes the oral tradition of storytelling within a royal context.
Technique & Style
The calligraphic hand is angular and precise, each character rendered with disciplined strokes that maximize space efficiency. The dense arrangement creates a visual cadence, guiding the reader’s eye downward. A thin red border outlines the margin, a common decorative element in Persian manuscripts that both frames the text and signals the page’s status as a finished, bound leaf.
History & Provenance
Created as part of a commissioned manuscript for Prince Salim, the folio exemplifies the courtly production practices of its era. The paper’s aged tan hue and the surviving red marginal line indicate it has endured considerable time. Though the current location is not specified, such pages are typically conserved within museum collections that specialize in Islamic manuscript art.
Artist & collection











