Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:27:19.578Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Note On Persian Cats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Willem Floor
Willem Floor*
Affiliation:
World Bank
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Jean-Pierre Digard's recent delightful and informative article on the Persian long-haired cat has stimulated me to write this short note to complement his contribution to the feline discussion. Digard and others before him have thrown doubt on the denomination “Persian” of the long-haired cat. Many reasons, all of them quite reasonable, have been adduced to make this point. I would like to offer some additional information, which is not available in Digard's article and will further muddle this issue. Apart from discussing the background of Persian cats—broadly along the lines of Digard's exposé—I will show that long-haired cats, although they may also have been from Kurdistan or Bukhara, were an article of export from Isfahan and other towns in Iran throughout the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Also, the data adduced show that the Persian cat was different from the Angora cat.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 27 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Iranian Studies 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Digard, Jean-Pierre “Chah des Chats, Chat de Chah? Sur les traces du chat persan” in Balland, Daniel, ed., Hommes et Terres d’ Islam. Mélanges offerts à Xavier de Planhol (Tehran, 2000), 321-38Google Scholar.

2. Salonen, Armas Jagd und Jagdtiere im alten Mesopotamien (Helsinki, 1976), 250-52, 264.Google Scholar

3. Dembeck, H. Animals and Men, tr. R. and Winston, C. (New York, 1965), 360-63Google Scholar.

4. In general see Omidsalar, Mahmoud “Cat,” Encyclopedia Iranica, 5: 74-75Google Scholar.

5. Titley, Norah M. Miniatures from Persian Manuscripts (London, 1977)Google Scholar lists many miniatures with cats (see index under ‘cats’), but these may be just simple house cats. There is even a depiction of cats, or at least of small felines, on a ninety-year-old carpet in Ali Javidian, Amir Precious Rugs of Dafineh Museum (Tehran, 1994), 81-82Google Scholar. The cat is also found in lithograph illustrations in the early Persian satirical press. For example, several cats are shown in Chanteh-i Pā-barahneh year 1, nr. 15; Buhlūl, year 1, nr. 14; Tanbīh, year 1, nr. 18 (an entire cat orchestra); Ibid., year 1, nr. 30; Ibid., year 7, nr, 4; Ibid., year 7, nr. 6. There is no doubt in my mind that art historians may find many more artistic depictions of cats, and, one hopes, long-haired ones, by Persian artists than I was able to, given my limited time and resources.

6. Bacqué-Gramont, Jean-Louis “Un félidé anatolien oublié: le chat de Divriği,” in Balland, Daniel, ed., Hommes et Terres d’ Islam, 339-42Google Scholar.

7. Digard, “Chah des Chats,” 324–26.

8. Valle, Pietro Della Les Fameux Voyages 4 vols. (Paris: Gervais Clouzier, 1664), 3: 148-49Google Scholar.

9. Herbert, Thomas Travels in Persia, 1627-1629, ed. Foster, W. (New York, 1929), 244Google Scholar. The Prophet Muhammad reportedly said: “the love of cats comes from faith.” (ḥubb al-hirra min alīmān).

10. Algemeen Rijks Archief, Collectie Geleynsen de Jonghe no. 102 (November 2, 1645), unfoliated.

11. Jean-Louis Bacqué-Gramont, “Un félidé anatolien oublié,” 339–42.

12. Digar, “Chah des Chats,” 326.

13. Cited by Digar, 326.

14. Elphinstone, Mountstuart An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul (London, 1815 [New Delhi reprint, 1998]), 144Google Scholar.

15. Lieut. Irwin, “Memoir on the Climate, Soil, Produce and Husbandry of Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries,” The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 8 (1839): 1007Google Scholar.

16. Schuyler, Eugene Turkistan: Notes on a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, Bukhara, and Kuldja 2 vols. (New York, 1876), 1: 130Google Scholar.

17. Balfour, E. The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial, Industrial, and Scientific. 3rd ed. (London, 1871–83 [Graz reprint, 1967]), 1: 605Google Scholar, s.v. Cats; quoted by Digard, “Chah des Chats,” 330.

18. Schwarz, Franz von Turkestan (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900), 380Google Scholar.

19. à Nijeholt, T. M. Lycklama Voyage en Russie, au Caucase et en Perse, 4 vols. (Paris-Amsterdam, 1873), 3: 54Google Scholar.

20. Dieulafoy, Jane La Perse, la Chaldée et la Susiane (Paris, 1887), 335fGoogle Scholar.

21. Wills, C. J. In the Land of the Lion and the Sun (London, 1893), 305Google Scholar [italics in original].

22. Binning, R. M. B. Journey of a Two Years’ Travel, 2 vols. (London, 1857), 1: 133Google Scholar.

23. Kotschy, Theodor “Der westliche Elbrus bei Teheran” Mittheillungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Geographischen Gesellschaft 5 (1861): 105Google Scholar.

24. Teule, Jules Charles Pensées et Notes Critiques extraites du journal de mes voyages dans l’empire du Sultan de Constantinople, dans les Provinces Russes, Géorgiennes et Tartars du Caucase et dans le royaume de Perse (Paris, 1842), 422Google Scholar.

25. Goldsmid, Sir Frederic J. Eastern Persia, An Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission 1870–71–72, 2 vols. (London, 1876), 1: 84Google Scholar.

26. Schlimmer, Joh. L. Terminologie Médico-Pharmaceutique: Française-Persane (Tehran, 1874 [Tehran reprint, 1970]), 276-77Google Scholar.

27. Khan Tahvildar, Mirza Husayn Jughrāfiyā-yi Iṣfahān (Tehran, 1342/1963), 63Google Scholar.

28. Rivadeneyra, Adolfo Viaje al interior de Persia 3 vols. (Madrid, 1880), 3: 185-86Google Scholar (the term año caro or the ‘expensive year’ probably refers to 1871, the year of drought and famine).

29. Sykes, Ella Persia and Its People (New York, 1910), 248Google Scholar; Serena, C. Hommes et Choses en Perse (Paris, 1883), 263Google Scholar reports the existence of a very much appreciated breed of cats in Iran without providing any further specifics.

30. Rev. Stileman, Charles Harvey The Subjects of the Shah (London: CMS, 1902), 5Google Scholar. Landor, H. Savage Across Coveted Lands, 2 vols. (New York, 1903), 2, 40-41Google Scholar also discusses his intelligent cats, which he purchased, but he did not state whether they were Persian cats.

31. Hume-Griffith, M. E. Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia (Philadelphia, 1909), 22-23Google Scholar.

32. Hay, W. R. Two Years in Kurdistan. Experiences of a Political Officer 1918–1920 (London, 1921), 60Google Scholar.

33. Millingen, Frederick Wild Life Among The Koords (London, 1870), 166Google Scholar.

34. Williams Jackson, A. V. Persia Past and Present: A Book of Travel and Research (London, 1909), 149-50Google Scholar (See illustration above in this article.).

35. Harris, W. B. From Batum to Baghdad via Tiflis, Tabriz and Persian Kurdistan (Edinburgh, 1896), 93Google Scholar.

36. Rosen, Friedrich Persien in Wort und Bild (Berlin, 1926), 32Google Scholar.

37. Stileman, The Subjects of the Shah, 3Google Scholar.

38. Curzon, G. N. Persia and the Persian Question, 2 vols. (London, 1892), 1: 399Google Scholar.

39. Iᶜtimad al-Saltana Rūznāmeh, 22.

40. Muᶜayyir al-Mamalik Yād-dāsht-hā-˒ā az zindagānī-yi khuṣūṣī-yi Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh (Tehran, 1351/1972), 158.

41. Iᶜtimad al-Saltana Rūznāmeh, 22, 147. In the case of Babri Khan, Muᶜayyir al-Mamalik wrote that the shah believed the cat had been instrumental in bringing down a fever he had had and as a consequence became more devoted than ever to the cat, which made its loss so painful.

42. Curzon, Persia, 1: 399Google Scholar.

43. al-Saltana, Taj Crowning Anguish, ed. Amanat, Abbas, tr. Vanzan, Anna and Neshati, Amin (Washington DC, 1993), 125Google Scholar.

44. Ibid., 127–28.

45. Qahraman Mirza Salur. Rūznāmeh-i Khāṭirāt-i ᶜAyn al-Salṭana, ed. Masᶜud Salur and Iraj Afshar 10 vols. (Tehran, 1374/1995), 1: 869-70. It is of interest to note that Iᶜtimad al-Saltana did not mention this event in his diary at all.

46. al-Saltana, Ihtisham Khāṭirāt, ed. Musavi, Muhammad Mahdi (Tehran, 1366/1987), 501Google Scholar.