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 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.
Instead there is stronger evidence for a longhaired cat breed being exported from Afghanistan and Iran from the 19th century onwards.[1][2][3][4] 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.
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.