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For a weary medieval pilgrim, travel to the Levant was a long, harrowing journey to a very different world. On the road to Jerusalem pilgrims could encounter fragrances, foods, and fashions completely foreign to their homelands. They may also have encountered a small, charming local that looked strikingly different from the plain mousers back home: the tabby cat.
The domestic feline was not a stranger to medieval pilgrims; cats had been a part of daily European life since the Roman Empire. However, much of Europe’s feline population until the 8th century was made up of the Felis silvestris silvestris subspecies, generally known in common nomenclature as the European wild cat, pictured below. This cat is often monocolor, with a thicker coat and slightly heavier than Asiatic (F. silvestris notatus) and African (F. silvestris libyca) wild cats. Cats were frequently depicted in works of art, and their value as mousers to reduce pests made them welcome in the homes of the high and low born alike.
F.s. silvestris. Modern European wild cat
F.s. libyca. Modern African wild cat
However, the tabby pattern of cat coloring, characterized by distinctive stripes, swirls, and the “M” marking on the forehead appears to have originated with the F.s. libyca subspecies, the African wild cat. This species was found throughout northern Africa and the Middle East, and directly led from the wild cats of the desert to domesticated cats in homes of the Levant. The F.s. libyca subspecies carried the genetic mutations for the "blotched" or "mackerel" tabby patterns we recognize today. The narrow striped pattern blended in well with the arid desert and scrublands the wild cats inhabited. Domestic cats of the Middle East would be descended from this subspecies, the tabby coloration was depicted in artwork from Egypt to Turkey.
1511 painting of a tabby cat by Sayid Kalem, Iran
In a recent study conducted in 2017, researchers found “that the recessive allele responsible for the blotched-tabby pattern in 80% of present-day cats occurred in our ancient dataset not earlier than the Medieval period….Thereafter, its frequency increased in Europe, showing late expansion of this typically domestic allele.” In layman's terms, the classic tabby pattern did not appear in the genetic record of European cats until the Medieval period, and then spread throughout the continent.
The F.s. libyca as a domestic cat has been found throughout the Levant with very early origins. Six cat skeletons were found in a Predynastic cemetery in Egypt dating to 3700 B.C. which suggests that domestication of F.s. libyca had a much longer history than that of the European wild cat F.s. silvestris. Genetic studies of cat skeletons from Egypt show that cats with the specific genetic lineage IV-C1 had found their way from Egypt to Europe by the 8th century,. “This range expansion is more evident between the 5th and 13th centuries AD, when the two IV-C lineages found in ancient Egyptian cats became substantially more frequent in Europe. By contrast, none of the 41 European cats from archaeological contexts predating the 8th century possessed IV-C markers.”
Beyond genetics, the etymology of the word “tabby” provides evidence of the Middle Eastern origins of the cat. The English word “tabby” is derived from the French word “tabis” which refers to a silk taffeta, often with a striped pattern. This French word is derived from the Arabic word “attabi” a shortened version of “Al-Attabiyah” which was the name of a section of the city of Baghdad, Iraq where the striped silk was made. This silk fabric was distinctive in that it had an irregular or wavy finish, which was reminiscent of the stripes of a tabby cat.
My humble hypothesis, based on genetic research and the etymology of the word “tabby” is that medieval pilgrims may have been delighted by the beautiful markings of the local cats, and brought one home with them. A uniquely patterned cat was distinctive, but also practical in that it could assist with pest control on the long voyage by sea or caravan by land back home. Pilgrimage was one of the drivers of cross-continental exchange in the Medieval world, with pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land bringing back spices, fabrics, and other souvenirs of their journey. Who wouldn’t want to bring home one of the gorgeously striped locals of the Holy Land?
15th century illumination of a tabby cat.
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS W.438, fol. 161v.
References Cited:
Carrigan, Margaret. 2025. “How a Mischievous Cat Left a Mark on Medieval Art—and Inspired a New Exhibition.” Artnet News, December 19, 2025. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/cats-medieval-manuscripts-walters-art-museum-2732418.
Driscoll, Carlos A., Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Alfred L. Roca, Karsten Hupe, Warren E. Johnson, Eli Geffen, Eric H. Harley, et al. 2007. “The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication.” Science 317 (5837): 519–23. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1139518.
Grimm, David. 2017. “Ancient Egyptians May Have Given Cats the Personality to Conquer the World.” Science | AAAS, June 19, 2017. https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-egyptians-may-have-given-cats-personality-conquer-world.
Klein, JoAnna. 2021. “Now We Know How Tabby Cats Get Their Stripes.” National Geographic, September 8, 2021. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/how-tabby-cats-get-their-stripes.
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Pocock, R. I. 1907. “The Origin of the Domestic Striped Tabby Cat.” Nature 76 (1973): 414. https://doi.org/10.1038/076414a0.
Van Neer, Wim, Veerle Linseele, Renée Friedman, and Bea De Cupere. 2014. “More Evidence for Cat Taming at the Predynastic Elite Cemetery of Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt).” Journal of Archaeological Science 45 (February): 103–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.02.014.
“Felis Silvestris (Wild Cat) Animal Diversity Web.” n.d. https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Felis_silvestris/.
“Cat Eating Fish Under the Seat of Tawy, Wife of Nakht.” 2024. Egypt Museum. April 13, 2024. https://egypt-museum.com/cat-eating-fish-under-a-chair/. New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, reign of Thutmose IV, c. 1401-1391 B.C. Tomb of Nakht (TT52). Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, West Thebes.
Editors of Merriam-Webster. 2018. “The Origin of the Word 'Tabby'” In . https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-history-of-the-word-tabby.
The Walters Art Museum. 2025. “Paws on Parchment.” August 5, 2025. https://thewalters.org/exhibitions/paws/. MS W.438, fol. 161v.
“COLOUR AND PATTERN CHARTS.” n.d. http://messybeast.com/colour-charts.htm.
Kalem, Siyah. 1511. F. 55b: Curled Up Cat. Opaque watercolor and ink. Harvard Fine Arts Library, Digital Images & Slides Collection.
Ya'qub Beg Album. https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/viewcomponent/L/olvwork420693?vid=01HVD_INST:HVD_IMAGES&imageId=urn-3:FHCL:37699119
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