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Suka Saptati is a famous Sanskrit narrative tradition. Its title approximately means the ‘Seventy Tales of a Parrot’. In its narrative structure, a parrot narrates a succession of stories.

Different Sanskrit recensions of this work circulated. One of its more elaborate recensions is associated with Chintamani Bhatt.

In the 14th century, Khwaza Ziya-uddin Nakhshabi rendered this Indian narrative tradition into Persian. His Persian version became famous under the title ‘Tutinama’, meaning the ‘Book/Tales of the Parrot’.

Nakhshabi did not restrict himself to a purely literal translation. He also reorganised and adapted the available narrative material according to Persian literary conventions. Therefore, studies often describe the Tutinama not only as a translation but also as an adaptation or recasting.

The basic frame of the narrative centres on a woman whose husband is away. Each night, her parrot tells her a new story and prevents her from leaving the house. In this way, numerous independent tales are connected within a frame narrative.

Later, the Tutinama also became important in Mughal painting. During the early years of Akbar's reign, a celebrated illustrated manuscript based on the stories of the Tutinama was produced.

Amir Khusro was a great Persian poet and literary figure of the Delhi Sultanate, but this rendering of the Tutinama was not his work. Abdur Razzak and Shihabuddin-al-Umari were also not responsible for the Persian rendering of this Sanskrit text.

Hence, the scholar who rendered Chintamani Bhatt's Suka Saptati into Persian as the Tutinama was Khwaza Ziya-uddin Nakhshabi.