In the Mesnevi, Mevlâna follows an approach of concretizing abstract religious and mystical concepts that are difficult to understand through stories. While narrating the stories, Mevlâna often provides an explanation within the story itself or at the end, explaining what the story conveys and how it should be interpreted. Through this, he guides the reader and interpreter on how the work should be understood. The story we have chosen for this paper is the "Shopkeeper and Parrot" story, which is briefly as follows: A shopkeeper has a very well-trained parrot that speaks very well and waits at the shop when the shopkeeper is not around. One day, while the parrot is waiting in the shop, a cat, which enters to hunt mice, scares the parrot. In its panic, the parrot flies and accidentally knocks over bottles of rose oil inside the shop. When the shopkeeper arrives, he angrily strikes the parrot on the head, causing it to lose its feathers. After this, the parrot stops speaking. The shopkeeper, saddened by the situation, tries to find ways to make the parrot talk again, but he fails. One day, a bald dervish enters the shop, and upon seeing him, the parrot speaks again, saying, "Hey dervish, did you become bald because, like me, you spilled rose oil?" Mevlâna, in the interpretation of this story, focuses on how a wrong comparison, like the one the parrot makes, can create confusion in understanding values. In this paper, the story and Mevlâna's thoughts on it are examined, and the main message of the story is conveyed through the concept of comparison.
Mevlâna, Mesnevi, shopkeeper, parrot, comparison.