Arnold Henry Savage Landor with his two Persian kittens, which he purchased himself in Kerman, Iran (known then as Persia) around 1900 The cats must also be noticed, at least the longhaired species called Boorauk, as they are exported in great numbers, and everywhere called Persian cats, though they are not numerous in the country from which they are named, and are seldom or never exported thence. In 1815 Lord Elphinstone describes the cats in Kabul thus: 244), "gorbe-ye barrāq" (Steingass, 1892: 1078), and "gorbe-ye barāq" appear in Persian dictionaries of the 19th and 20th centuries. Instead variations of "gorbe-ye borāq" (Naficy, 1967, p. Persian-speakers themselves are not documented to refer to any breed of cat as "Persian cat", or "gorba-ye pârsi". Īlbeit of unclear geographic faithfulness, the name Persian cat was eventually given to cats imported from Afghanistan, Iran and likely some adjacent regions for marketing purposes in Europe. All their beauty is in their coat which is gray without any speckles and without any spots, of one color throughout all the body, being a little lighter on the chest and the stomach which goes somewhat whitish, with an agreeable shade of light brown, as in paintings when one color is mixed with the other to give a marvelous effect. Their size and their form are like those of ordinary cats. I am inclined to bring them to Rome and to populate Italy with this breed. We estimate them to be of high value however, they mean nothing to the people of Khorasan. In his letter from 1620 Della Valle distinguishes the Khorasan cat from similar long-haired cats imported to Europe from the Near East by their gray coat:Īt this point I have found in this country a very beautiful species of cats which are native to the province of Khorasan, but of another appearance and quality than those of Tyre. While the de Peiresc import from Syria is corroborated by later correspondences, della Valle is only known to have had voiced his intention in a letter from 1620, but returned to Italy much later in 1626 after travelling several other countries with the remains of his wife in tow and no further mention of the cats. The first documented ancestors of the Persian cat might have been imported from Khorasan, either Eastern Iran or Western Afghanistan, into the Italian Peninsula in 1620 by Pietro della Valle and from Damascus, Syria, into France by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc at around the same time. It is not clear when long-haired cats first appeared, as there are no known long-haired specimens of the African wildcat, the ancestor of the domestic species.Īn Angora/Persian from The Royal Natural History (1894) In 2021, Persian cats were ranked as the fourth-most popular cat breed in the world according to the Cat Fanciers' Association, an American non-profit cat registry. Hereditary polycystic kidney disease is prevalent in the breed, affecting almost half of the population in some countries. As is the case with the Siamese breed, there have been efforts by some breeders to preserve the older type of cat, the traditional breed, having a more pronounced muzzle, which is more popular with the general public. Favored by fanciers, this head structure can bring with it a number of health problems. The selective breeding carried out by breeders has allowed the development of a wide variety of coat colors, but has also led to the creation of increasingly flat-faced Persian cats. Some cat fancier organizations' breed standards subsume the Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair as variants of this breed, while others generally treat them as separate breeds. Widely recognized by cat fancy since the late 19th century, Persian cats were first adopted by the British, and later by American breeders after World War II. Instead there is stronger evidence for a longhaired cat breed being exported from Afghanistan and Iran from the 19th century onwards. The first documented ancestors of Persian cats might have been imported into Italy from Khorasan as early as around 1620, however this has not been proven. The Persian cat, also known as the Persian longhair, is a long-haired breed of cat characterized by a round face and short muzzle. The Exotic Shorthair and Himalayan cats are often classified as coat variants of this breed.
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