The selective breeding carried out by breeders has allowed the development of a wide variety of coat colours,[5] but has also led to the creation of increasingly flat-faced Persian cats.

As is the case with the Siamese breed, there have been efforts by some breeders to preserve the older type of cat, the Traditional Persian, which has a more pronounced muzzle.

The first documented ancestors of the Persian cat might have been imported from Khorasan, either Eastern Iran or Western Afghanistan, into the Italian Peninsula in 1620 by Pietro Della Valle; and from Damascus, Syria, into France by Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc at around the same time.

While the de Peiresc import from Syria is corroborated by later correspondences, Della Valle is only known to have voiced his intention in a letter from 1620 but returned to Italy much later in 1626 after travelling several other countries with the remains of his wife in tow and no further mention of the cats.

All their beauty is in their coat which is gray without any speckles and without any spots, of one color throughout all the body, being a little lighter on the chest and the stomach which goes somewhat whitish, with an agreeable shade of light brown, as in paintings when one color is mixed with the other to give a marvelous effect.Albeit of unclear geographic faithfulness, the name Persian cat was eventually given to cats imported from Afghanistan, Iran, and likely some adjacent regions for marketing purposes in Europe.

In 1885 Edward Balfour describes the Afghan trade of long-haired cats to India: “The long silky-furred Angora cats are annually brought to India for sale from Afghanistan, with caravans of camels, even so far as Calcutta.” Similarly in 1882, Jane Dieulafoy, travelling in Iran from Isfahan to Shiraz in a caravan heading for Bušehr, observes “an inhabitant of Yezd in Kirmania, who transported from Tauris [Tabriz] to Bombay about twenty beautiful angoras.

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.

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."

Some organisations, including the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), consider the peke-face type as their modern standard for the Persian breed.

This was to make it easy for breeders who do not want Himalayan blood in their breeding lines to avoid individuals who, while not necessarily exhibiting the colourpoint pattern, may be carrying the point colouration gene recessively.

Persians with Himalayan ancestry have registration numbers starting with 3 and are commonly referred to by breeders as colourpoint carriers (CPC) or 3000-series cats, although not all will carry the recessive gene.

The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) treats the Himalayan as a colour-pattern class of both the Persian and the Exotic, which have separate but nearly identical standards (differing in coat length).

[40] The Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) entirely subsumes what other registries call the Himalayan as simply among the allowed colouration patterns for the Persian and the Exotic, treated as separate breeds.

[23] The World Cat Federation (WCF) treats the Persian and Exotic Shorthair as separate breeds and subsumes the Himalayan colouration as colourpoint varieties under each.

The International Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) groups the breed into four coat-pattern divisions, but differently: solid, silver and golden (including chinchilla and shaded variants, and blued subvariants), shaded and smoke (with several variations of each, and a third sub-categorisation called shell), tabby (only classic, mackerel, and patched [spotted], in various colours), party-colour (in four classes, tortoiseshell, blue-cream, chocolate tortie, and lilac-cream, mixed with other colours), calico and bi-colour (in around 40 variations, broadly classified as calico, dilute calico, and bi-colour), and Himalayan (white-to-fawn body with point colouration on the head, tail and limbs, in various tints).

Any Persian permissible in TICA's more detailed system would probably be accepted in CFA's, simply with a more general name, though the organisations do not mix breed registries.

The International Cat Association (TICA) groups the breed into three coat-pattern divisions for judging at cat shows traditional (with stable, rich colours), sepia ("paler and warmer than the traditional equivalents", and darkening a bit with age), and mink (much lighter than sepia, and developing noticeably with age on the face and extremities).

Basic colours include white, black, brown, ruddy, bronze, blue ("grey"), chocolate, cinnamon, lilac, fawn, red, and cream, with a silver or shaded variant of most.

[56] The anatomical changes in the upper respiratory track caused by brachycephaly such as stenotic nares, elongated soft palate, and nasopharyngeal turbinates contribute to obstruction of the airways and breathing difficulties.

[57] Due to the reduction of the maxillary alveolar space the Persian's teeth are positioned at abnormal angles and overlap, causing dental and gingival problems.

[58] Brachcephaly causes the Persian to have shallow orbits and protuding eyes, this can lead to keratitis, sequestrum developments in the cornea, and non-healing corneal ulcers.

[62] The brachcephalic skull of the Persian has led to changes in the morphology of the cranial cavity, causing intracranial overcrowding, herniation of the brain, and hydrocephaly.

[71] Previous ultrasonographic studies (involving procedures likely to be performed on cats suspected of kidney problems) found a PKD rate in Persian and related breeds of 49.2% in the UK, 43% in Australia, and 41.8% in France.

[76] Unlike PKD, which can be detected even in very young cats, heart tests for HCM have to be done regularly to effectively track and/or remove affected individuals and their offspring from the breeding pool.

[78] Despite a belief among some breeders that the disease is limited to chocolate and Himalayan lines, there is no apparent link between coat colour in Persians and the development of PRA.

It's characterised by greasy skin, debris adhering to the folds of the face and nose, ceruminous otitis externa, secondary bacterial folliculitis and Malassezia dermatitis, and pruritus.

Though these features may be "cuter", they result in many health issues including ill-functioning nasolacrimal systems where tears build and flow down the face, a soft and long palate that obstructs the upper airway making breathing more difficult, and dental and jaw defects (brachygnathia) where the teeth grow outwardly in unnatural positions, making it difficult to eat and increasing the chance of plaque formation gingivitis.

Such health issues affect the quality of life of many Persian cats, especially those that fall into the severe category, and raise questions about the ethics and legality of these deformity breeding programmes.As a consequence of the BBC programme Pedigree Dogs Exposed, cat breeders have also come under pressure from veterinary and animal welfare associations, with the Persian singled out as one of the breeds most affected by health problems.

Germany's Animal Welfare Act also prohibits the breeding of brachycephalic cats in which the tip of the nose is higher than the lower eyelids.

The late 19th-century oil portrait is called My Wife's Lovers, and it once belonged to a wealthy philanthropist who commissioned an artist to paint her vast assortment of Turkish Angoras and Persians.