The Persian cat

In Persian it is simply gorbe-ye irani, the Iranian cat. Long-haired cats were known in Iran and the lands around it long before anyone in Europe gave them a breed name, and they are still a familiar sight in Iranian homes: a heavy coat, a round head, a plumed tail and an air of owning the cushion they lie on.

Carried west

European interest began with travellers. The Italian Pietro della Valle, who spent years in Safavid Persia in the 1610s and 1620s, is traditionally credited with bringing long-haired cats from Khorasan to Italy, and he described them with obvious affection in his letters. Over the next two centuries such cats, from Persia and from Anatolia, became prized pets in France and Britain.

Made into a breed

The Persian as a pedigree breed was shaped in Britain in the nineteenth century, and long-haired cats were among those shown at the first large cat show, at the Crystal Palace in London in 1871. Later breeding, above all in the twentieth century, pushed the face flatter and flatter. Many vets and some breed clubs now argue for a moderate face, because the extreme flat-faced type is linked to breathing and eye problems.

The cat in Persian letters

Cats walk through Persian literature as well as Persian houses. The best known is the villain of Mush o Gorbeh, the Mouse and the Cat, a short satirical poem in which a pious-seeming cat devours the mice it has just sworn to spare. It is often attributed to Obeyd Zakani, though the attribution is disputed, and Iranian children still learn it by heart.