Cute persian cat is petting on the bed

Persian cat
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Not to be confused with Persian (Pokemon).
Persian cat
White Persian Cat.jpg
Other names Persian longhair, Shirazi
Origin Iran (Persia)
Breed standards
CFA standard
FIFe standard
TICA standard
WCF standard
FFE standard
ACF standard
ACFA/CAA standard
CCA-AFC standard
GCCF standard
LOOF standard
Notes
The Exotic Shorthair and Himalayan cats are often classified as coat variants of this breed.
Domestic cat (Felis catus)
The Persian cat (Aksha) (Persian: گربه پارسی, Gorbe'-ye Pârsi) is a long-haired breed of cat characterized by its round face and short muzzle. It is also known as the "Persian Longhair" in English-speaking countries. The first documented ancestors of Persian cats were imported into Italy from Persia around 1620.[1][2] Recognized by the cat fancy since the late 19th century, Persian cats were first adopted by the English, and then mainly by American breeders after the Second World War. Some cat fancier organizations' breed standards subsume the Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair as variants of this breed, while others treat them as separate breeds.

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 Persians. Favored by fanciers, this head structure can bring with it a number of health problems. 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. Hereditary polycystic kidney disease is prevalent in the breed, affecting almost half the population in some countries.[3][4]

In 2021, Persian cats were ranked as the fourth most popular cat breed in the world according to the Cat Fanciers' Association.[5]
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 subspecies.


An Angora/Persian from The Royal Natural History (1894)
The first documented ancestors of the Persian were imported from Khorasan, Persia, into Italy in 1620 by Pietro della Valle, and from Angora (now Ankara), Ottoman Empire (Turkey), into France by Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc at around the same time. The Khorasan cats (گربه خراسانی) were grey coated while those from Angora were white. From France, they soon reached Britain.[6]

Recent genetic research indicates that present day Persians are related not to cats from the Near East but to cats from Western Europe. The researchers stated, "Even though the early Persian cat may have in fact originated from Persia, the modern Persian cat has lost its phylogeographical signature."[7]

Development
Persians and Angoras



Top: Blue Persian, prize-winner at Westminster in 1899
Middle: Silver Persian, winner of multiple leading cat shows in 1902
Bottom: President Roosevelt, Persian cat (tabby), 1945
The first Persian cat was presented at the first organized cat show, in 1871 in the Crystal Palace in London, England, organized by Harrison Weir. As specimens closer to the later established Persian conformation became the more popular types, attempts were made to differentiate it from the Angora.[8] The first breed standard (then called a points of excellence list) was issued in 1889 by cat show promoter Weir. Weir stated that the Persian differed from the Angora in the tail being longer, hair more full and coarse at the end, and head larger, with less pointed ears.[9] Not all cat fanciers agreed with the distinction of the two types, and in the 1903 work, The Book of the Cat, Francis Simpson states that "the distinctions, apparently with hardly any difference, between Angoras and Persians are of so fine a nature that I must be pardoned if I ignore the class of cat commonly called Angora".[10]

Dorothy Bevill Champion lays out the difference between the two types in the 1909 Everybody's Cat Book:[11]

Our pedigree imported long-hairs of to-day are undoubtedly a cross of the Angora and Persian; the latter possesses a rounder head than the former, also the coat is of quite a different quality.
Bell goes on to detail the differences. Persian coats consist of a woolly under coat and a long, hairy outer coat. The coat loses all the thick underwool in the summer, and only the long hair remains. Hair on the shoulders and upper part of the hind legs is somewhat shorter. Conversely, the Angora has a very different coat which consists of long, soft hair, hanging in locks, "inclining to a slight curl or wave on the under parts of the body." The Angora's hair is much longer on the shoulders and hind legs than the Persian, which Bell considered a great improvement. However, Bell says the Angora "fails to the Persian in head," Angoras having a more wedge-shaped head and Persians having a rounder head.