The Odd-Eye of the Turkish Angora — The Secret of the Two Eyes Sanctified by Ottoman Sultans and the History of Pureblood Preservation at the Ankara Zoo

Origins of the Turkish Angora | The Legend of the Odd-Eyed Cat and the Sultans | The Ankara Zoo Pureblood Preservation Project

In the archives of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul lies an old document. Written in the 17th century by order of an Ottoman Sultan, it concerns the management of animals within the palace. A list follows of rare animals gathered from around the world to display the empire's prestige: falcons, lions, giraffes, and elephants. And in one section of that list, a record of a completely different nature appears. It is a record of cats with white fur, one blue eye, and one yellow eye. They were not creatures meant to flaunt power like lions or elephants. These cats resided not at the center of power, but in the most intimate spaces of the ruler—the Sultan's personal chambers, the inner rooms of the harem, and the most private quarters of the imperial family. This is why the story of the Ankara cat and the Ottoman Empire is so fascinating. This cat was not a mere ornament of the empire. It was connected to something much deeper.

How Ankara Created the Cat — A Breed Sculpted by the Terrain

The Central Anatolian Plateau in Turkey is home to Ankara (formerly known as Angora). The climate of this region is extreme. Summers bring dry heat exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, while winters drop to bitterly cold sub-zero temperatures. Rainfall is scarce, and the winds are strong. For any creature to survive, it had to adapt to this extreme environment. The cats that have lived in the Ankara region for thousands of years are a product of this environment. Their fur grew long to endure the harsh winters. But it is not merely long. The fur of the Turkish Angora has a single-layer structure. While most long-haired cats have a double coat, the Angora possesses a single coat of fine, silk-like fur. This fur does not trap heat in the summer, keeping them cool, and it holds onto air in the winter, keeping them warm. It is a perfect adaptation forged by thousands of years of natural selection. Their physique is the same. Slender and long legs, a wedge-shaped head, and a long tail—this is not the result of aristocratic aesthetics but a structure built for speed and agility. Angora cats are actually very fast and excellent hunters. However, what drew the attention of the Ottoman Empire was not just their physical abilities. It was their color. Specifically, the color of their eyes.

Odd-Eye — What Happened to the Cat with Two Different Eyes

Among the Turkish Angoras, there were particularly rare individuals. Pure white fur. One deep blue eye. The other a golden or pale yellow eye. This is known as an odd-eye, scientifically referred to as heterochromia iridum. It is a phenomenon where the iris pigmentation of the two eyes develops differently. It occurs genetically and is especially common in cats with white fur. The scientific explanation is as follows: the gene that produces white fur also affects the formation of pigment in the eyes. A blue eye is a state where there is almost no pigment in the iris, while a yellow or golden eye is a state where the pigment has fully developed. When pigment formation is suppressed in one eye and develops normally in the other, it results in an odd-eye. However, the sultans of the Ottoman Empire did not explain this through science. To them, it was a mark of the divine. They believed these creatures could see the heavens with their blue eye and the earth with their golden eye. It is not exactly known in which specific literature this belief first appeared. However, various records confirm that this belief was widely spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. And upon this belief, an astonishing legend was built.

The Prophet's Cat is in Ankara — The Connection to Muezza

The reason the Ankara cat was considered particularly precious in Islamic tradition is its connection to the story of Muezza. According to some Turkish folktales, the Prophet Muhammad's cat, Muezza, was an Ankara cat. The belief is that cats with white fur and odd eyes are the descendants of Muezza. The historical basis for this story is unclear, but that did not weaken the power of this belief. The Ottoman Empire was the center of the Islamic world. The Sultan was not just a political leader but also claimed the title of Caliph of the entire Islamic world. In this context, owning and protecting the descendants of the Prophet's cat was not merely a hobby or keeping a pet. It was a religious duty and a source of authority. The odd-eyed Ankara cat, in particular, held the highest value in this context. Eyes that look at heaven and earth simultaneously. A being that connects the divine world with the secular world. Having this cat in the Sultan's chambers was a symbol that the space was blessed by God.

The Sultans' Ankara Cats — The History of White Fur Alongside Power

Among the successive sultans of the Ottoman Empire, some had a special relationship with the Ankara cat. Records from the era of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) mention the presence of numerous Ankara cats in the palace. Suleiman the Magnificent was the most powerful sultan in the history of the Ottoman Empire, and under his rule, the empire reached its greatest territorial extent. In his palace, the Ankara cats were the masters of the inner chambers. Not the political meeting rooms, but the masters of the spaces where the Sultan's personal life unfolded. During the reign of Selim II, more specific records regarding the Ankara cat remain. There are records indicating an unofficial practice of restricting the export of Ankara cats to other countries during this period. The finest Ankara cats were not allowed to leave the Ottoman palace. This is a very significant fact. The Ottoman Empire accumulated immense wealth through trade. Precious goods from all over the world flooded into Istanbul and spread back out into the world. Yet, they tried to prevent the Ankara cat, especially the odd-eyed Ankara cat, from being sent out. They were not objects of trade. They were something to be protected.

Europe Discovers the Ankara Cat

The Ankara cat first became known in Europe in the 16th century. A description of this cat appears in the records left by the French naturalist Pierre Belon, who visited the Ottoman Empire in 1555. He described the white cats he saw in Ankara as having incredibly soft fur, as white as snow. After this, Ankara cats began to be gradually introduced to Europe. While it was difficult to bring them directly from the Ottoman palace, some individuals made their way to Europe through merchants in the Ankara region. European nobles were deeply enthusiastic about these cats. There are records that King Louis XV of France received an Ankara cat as a gift and favored it greatly. The cat was also introduced to the British royal family. In 17th and 18th century Europe, the Ankara cat, or Angora cat, was a symbol of nobility. However, a problem arose here. As the popularity of the Angora cat soared in Europe, European cat breeders began to breed them on a large scale. Crossbreeding occurred with other long-haired cats, such as the Persian cat. The original Turkish Angora had a single layer of silk-like fur, but the Angoras bred in Europe evolved into a completely different cat with a thick double coat. By the early 20th century, the cats called Angoras in Europe had become a distinct breed with almost no connection to the original Turkish species. The original Turkish Angora was slowly being forgotten amidst the crossbreeding frenzy in Europe.

The Secret Project of the Ankara Zoo — The Paradox of Near Extinction

In the mid-20th century, the Turkish government discovered a shocking fact. Thousands of cats were being bred around the world under the name Angora cat, yet the pureblood Turkish Angora was disappearing in Turkey itself. As crossbreeding with imported mixed-breed cats progressed, the genetics of the original breed, shaped by thousands of years of natural selection, were being diluted. In the 1960s, the Turkish government made a decisive move. They created a special program at the Ankara Zoo. It was a protective breeding program that selected pureblood Turkish Angoras, specifically those with white fur and odd eyes. This was a highly paradoxical situation. Zoos are typically places that protect wild animals. Yet Turkey found itself in a position where it had to protect cats in a zoo. And not just any animal, but the most urban animal that had coexisted with humans for thousands of years. The Turkish Angora program at the Ankara Zoo continues to this day. Strict pedigree management, the prioritized preservation of odd-eyed individuals, and the prevention of reckless crossbreeding with outsiders. Through this program, the original Turkish Angora is being maintained. If you visit the zoo, you can see these cats. They are not locked in cages. They roam freely within the zoo grounds, cared for by the staff and mingling with visitors. From the inner chambers of the Ottoman sultans to the front of zoo visitors' cameras. At the end of that long journey, these cats still gaze at the world with eyes of different colors.

The Cats of Istanbul — The Entire City Becomes a Sanctuary

If the pureblood program at the Ankara Zoo is one axis of the story, the other axis features the street cats of Istanbul. Istanbul is currently known as one of the cities with the highest cat populations in the world. Hundreds of thousands of street cats live in this city. However, these cats are not simply abandoned strays. The citizens of Istanbul consider these cats as members of the city. There are cat food bowls at every building, shop, and mosque. There are even cat water dispensers officially installed by the city. If a cat gets sick, citizens voluntarily pool money for veterinary bills. One of the roots of this culture is the Ankara cat tradition of the Ottoman Empire. The religious tradition in Islam that considers cats to be clean animals, the stories of the Prophet Muhammad's love for cats, and the imperial tradition of cherishing cats in the palace for hundreds of years—all of these accumulated to make Istanbul the city of cats. And among those cats, a white cat is occasionally seen. A cat with one blue eye and one golden eye, the very eyes that the Ottoman sultans considered sacred, now sits in a sunny spot on a street corner in Istanbul, looking at the sky with its blue eye and at the world with its golden eye.

The Modern Debate Brought About by the Odd-Eye

Modern genetics explains the odd-eye phenomenon of the Turkish Angora in fascinating ways. The dominant white gene that produces white fur affects the overall pigment formation in the cat. This gene tends to create white fur and blue eyes together. However, there is an important fact related to this gene. White cats with two blue eyes have a roughly 65 to 85 percent chance of being born with congenital deafness. On the other hand, odd-eyed white cats may have a chance of deafness in the ear on the side of the blue eye, but their overall rate of deafness is lower. It is unknown whether the Ottoman Empire favored odd-eyes because they knew this fact. Ultimately, however, the tradition of sanctifying and protecting odd-eyed cats aligned with selecting individuals that were auditorily healthier. Myth and practicality pointed in the same direction. Today in Turkey, the odd-eyed Turkish Angora is a cultural heritage protected by the state. Indiscriminately breeding this cat or taking it overseas is subject to legal restrictions. The unofficial protective practices of the Ottoman sultans from hundreds of years ago have carried over into the laws of a modern nation.

On Seeing the World with Two Eyes

There is something worth pondering in the story of the Ankara cat. Having eyes of different colors. The Ottoman people interpreted this as the ability to see two worlds simultaneously. Heaven and earth, the sacred and the secular, the seen and the unseen. This is not just a story about the color of a cat's eyes. It is a story about a perspective that views difference as something sacred. It is the thought that having identical eyes is not the standard and having different ones a defect, but rather that being different is proof of being able to see a wider world. The Ottoman Empire protected the odd-eyed cat for hundreds of years based on that thought. And as a result of that protection, you can still meet that cat today in some alleyway of Istanbul. One eye blue. The other eye golden. A cat that looks at two worlds simultaneously with its two eyes...