Contrary to what its name might suggest, the Abyssinian cat does not originate from Abyssinia, which is in present-day Ethiopia.

Also the claim that Abyssinian cats are descendants of the im pharaonic Egypt  living and there are considered divinely revered cats, is the area ofLegend .

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With a probability bordering on certainty, the ancestors of today's Abyssinian cat originally came from the jungles Southeast Asia.

Because the   that only occurred in this cat breed for a long timemutation of the tabbygens  "Abyssinian tabby" (TA) is found in cats on the coast of the Indian Ocean between Singapore and Sri Lanka, while it is undetectable in Egypt and East Africa.

Abyssinian-like wild cat species in Eurasia, Asia, and Africa are the wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) and the cane cat (Felis chaus).

The known antecedents of the modern Abyssinian cat breed point in the same direction: early illustrations in the 19th century English cat journal which resemble the Abyssinian cat were referred to there as "Asiatic cats". A stuffed animal with traits of the TA gene from the 1830s still exists on display im zoological museum the Dutch city To suffer. The coarse-speckled feral cat, which is a feral modern Abyssinian cat also vom Exterior her looks very similar, is called "Patrie, domestica India" (Indian house cat).

In individual cases, the original type probably spread from Southeast Asia in the direction Near East  or East Africa; but mainly by English traders and colonial officials within the British Empire.