It is not clear when longhaired cats first appeared, as there are no known longhaired specimens of the African wildcat, the ancestor of the domestic subspecies. There were claims[by whom?] in the 19th century that the gene responsible for long hair was introduced through hybridization with the Pallas cat, but research in the early 20th century refutes this theory.[citation needed]


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), Turkey, into France by NicholasClaude Fabri de Peiresc at around the same time. The Khorasan cats were grey coated while those from Angora were white. From France, they soon reached Britain.[2][selfpublished source] Longhaired cats were also imported to Europe from Afghanistan, Burma, China and Russia. Interbreeding of the various types was common, especially between Angoras and Persians.[3][unreliable source?]

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 ancient Persia, the modern Persian cat has lost its phylogeographical signature