The Parrot and the Merchant is a timeless story. Written in the thirteenth century, it is yet accessible for modern readers. The illustrations are a sophisticated mix of beautiful birds and fabrics with interestingly strange, almost sinister, human characters. Rumi was a thirteenth-century Iranian poet, philosopher and mystic whose works have been studied for centuries and still speak to us today. Some of his songs have been put to music by contemporary Western artists, and now this book brings a wise story about true love into the English language in the book form.

Feeroozeh Golmohammadi was born and raised in Tehran. She is the first woman from her country to win international recognition. She began art education at the age of fifteen at high school and continued her studies at an art university in Iran. Since then she has engaged herself in this field. Feeroozeh is primarily a miniaturist and is highly credited as a modernizer of Persian miniature. In her work, while the essence of miniature principles predominates, forms and elements are modernized. For three years, Feeroozeh worked as the chief editor of an Iranian woman's magazine, Zan-e-Rooz (Today's Woman). From 1984 to 1988, she headed the Iranian Cultural Center in Pakistan. Over the last decade, she has been engaged in delivering lectures on art and books for children and young people in conferences around the globe and has served as a jury member in various national and international art competitions. In 1997, Feeroozeh was missioned by UNESCO to organize a workshop for women artists from Asia in Tehran. She now serves as the Executive Secretary of Tehran International Biennial for Children's Illustrations where she endeavors to extend a greater international exposure for the Iranian arts.