The Story of the Parrot

Isaac al-Kanzī

Late 11th or Early 12th Century

R. Isaac Mevorakh ha-Nagid ha-Sephardi said, etc.: And the Targum [Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible] said concerning ve-tukiyyim: ve-tusin.

I say that the meaning of the word ve-tukiyyim is not “peacocks,” but “parrots,” which have a green color. It is a kind of bird that comes from India, and it can speak if it learns how to do so. The word…

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In this short passage from his Judeo-Arabic commentary on 1 Kings 10:22, Isaac ben Samuel explains the meaning of the word tukiyyim, which in the biblical text are imported by King Solomon. Isaac rejects the interpretation of the word as “peacocks” (also found in some translations today) in favor of “parrots” and explains the etymology of the word in Hebrew. He also reports that he himself saw a parrot with the ability to repeat biblical passages. This bird must have been quite an attraction in medieval Egypt.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval History and Travel Writing

7th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Isaac al-Kanzī

d. ca. 1127

Isaac ben Samuel ha-Sephardi al-Kanzī was a leading rabbinic scholar in twelfth-century Fustāt (Old Cairo). Isaac wrote responsa, a short talmudic commentary, a commentary on the Prophets, and liturgical poetry. Several court documents preserve his name as well, as he was an active member of the local rabbinic court. Isaac apparently sided with David ben Daniel in a bitter battle over Jewish leadership in the late eleventh century, and he later held appointments from the eleventh-century nagid Mevorakh ben Se‘adya and his son Moses.

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