August 8 was #InternationalCatDay – #World Cat Day according to some Twitter hashtags – but just one day of online celebrations for this furry creature was not enough for the Arab world.
#InternationalCatDay continued to trend in Arabic on the following day. The Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci may have said “the smallest feline is a masterpiece”, but that didn’t stop owners from jazzing up their pets with a series of Snapchat filters, flower headbands and tiaras.
International Cat Day was created by the International Fund for Animal Welfare in 2002. Not surprisingly, there are several “cat days” celebrated in different countries on different dates. For example, in the United States, October 29 is National Cat Day.
This week, a 2012 YouTube video titled "The Hunt for Pikachu",with more than 23 million views, resurfaced on social media. It features a cute "pikachu kitty" that zaps a man across the room.
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this,” wrote English fantasy author Terry Pratchett. And while cats have fallen on hard times in the Arab and Muslim world, where they are often neglected and left to fend for themselves, they were once revered by important religious and historic figures.
Among them is the Prophet Mohammed, who is said to have owned one beloved kitty called Mu’izza (or Muezza). One story goes that once while Prophet Mohammed wanted to wear a robe to go out to prayers, he found his cat sleeping on one of the sleeves.
Not wanting to wake the animal, he cut off the sleeve, leaving his cat to sleep peacefully. Later he sewed it back on. It is also believed that when the Prophet gave sermons within his household, it was often while holding his cat in his lap.
One of his famous companions was known as Abu Hurairah, which translates as “father of the kitten”, because he carried his pet cat with him and fed the strays around the mosque. It is said that Abu Hurairah’s cat saved Prophet Mohammed from a snake.
Mercy and compassion towards cats, and animals in general, is embodied in an oft-repeated hadith that tells of how a woman went to hell because of a cat “which she neither fed nor let it eat from the vermin of earth”.
Islamic cat-loving rulers include Mamluk Sultan Al-Zahir Baybars (13th century), who created a “cats’ garden”, where the cats of Cairo would find everything they needed and liked. The 12th century ruler of Syria, Nour Aldeen Zenki, set up Islamic endowments (waqf) for blind cats and another for “retired” animals.
It seems cats have always had a special connection with the people of this region. They are mentioned in Arabic, Islamic (particularly Sufi) literature, as well as in myths.
Examples include a famous six-lined elegy by Baghdad poet Ibn Al‘Allaf (died 319/931) for his cat that was killed by neighbours after it ate one of their pigeons.
Another example is a line from Al-Jahiz's 9th-century work Kitab Al-Hayawan that states: "And the cat profits so much from its resemblance to the king of beasts that one way of dealing with approaching war elephants is to release a number of cats from a bag."
rghazal@thenational.ae
