What type or breed of cat was Muezza, the cat of Prophet Mohammad?

People ask whether Muezza was a particular type or breed of cat. They are different questions but I can answer them both together. Muezza is a famous cat. I don’t know for sure whether the cat was female or male but I have seen her referred to as female so I will adopt that. He loved Muezza so much that he sacrificed his robe for her. Muezza was asleep on the sleeve of his robe when the Prophet was called to prayer. Rather than disturb her he cut off his sleeve to leave his favourite cat snoozing peacefully. Prophet Mohammad’s fondness for cats is stated in the hadith “Affection for cats is part of faith”. I have written a lot more about the Islam faith and cats which you can read by clicking on this link.

Tabby cat from Ancient Egypt (not far from Saudi Arabia) from 1500 CE. Picture in public domain.

So back to the question about the breed of cat that Muezza might have been. One website, Daily Sabah, written by a Muslim of knowledge states that the Prophet Mohammad came across a black-and-white Abyssinian cat during the Uhud campaign. The campaign was conducted in the valley north of Mount Uhud, which is north of Medina, Saudi Arabia. The battle was fought on Saturday 22nd December 624 CE (A.D. or after Christ).

The Prophet Mohammed lived between about 570 CE and 8 June 632 CE in Saudi Arabia. I need to mention these dates and the places because they are relevant to answering the question.

We are referring to an era about 1,500 years ago in Saudi Arabia. By today’s standards there were no cat breeds in that era and at that place. The concept of cat breeds hadn’t been devised or even thought about. Formally, cat breeds came about in the late 1800s in England, UK. All domestic cats or stray cats were random-bred cats at the time of the Prophet. There were no cats of a particular breed or type or race at least not formally recognised. Some founder cats may have been purebred but there were no cat associations and pedigree cats in those days.

So in answer to the question, we cannot say that Muezza was a member of a cat breed. It is interesting that the author referred to the above, mentioned an Abyssinian cat. There is a breed called the Abyssinian cat today. The cat looks like the cat statues of ancient Egypt. However, the Abyssinian cat has what is called a ticked-tabby coat. This is an even coat with a “salt and pepper” (subtly broken) appearance and rusty brown in colour. The Abyssinian cat cannot be black-and-white. Also, at that time I’d argue that it is unlikely that there were black-and-white cats in Saudi Arabia. They would have been tabby cats (brown with spots or stripes).

At the time of the Prophet most if not all cats were tabby cats. These are not a breed of cat but a cat with a certain type of cat: the tabby coat. The early tabby cats would have been spotted. I would therefore suggest that Muezza was a spotted or spotted/striped tabby cat of no particular breed. Although I am speculating. There may have been tabby-and-white cats in that era or Turkish Van type cats. We don’t know and there are no pictures of records as far as I know of Muezza’s appearance to guide us.

I have therefore decided that the Abyssinian cat referred on the Daily Sabah website is a reference to a cat that came from Abyssinia which is Ethiopia today. I will also have to presume that the cat was a random-bred cat and not part of a cat breed. The Abyssinian cat as a breed did not exist at the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

Today, in Saudi Arabia there are no naturally occurring cat breeds that come from that region to the best of my knowledge. Therefore, we cannot say that Muezza was an early version of a cat which is today native to Saudi Arabia.