of Muslims from other East African countries such
as Kenya or Tanzania. Seven years later came the
revolution in Iran, resulting in another wave of
Iranian Shii immigration into North America.
There is also a substantial Ismaili community
in Canada (predominantly of South Asian and
east aFrican origin), self-estimated to consist
of some 30,000 members in the Greater Toronto
Area alone. Another minority is the Ahmadi com-
munity in Toronto, which has experienced major
difficulties from other Muslims.
Amir HussainFurther reading: Sheila McDonough, “Muslims of
Canada.” In South Asian Religious Diaspora in Brit-
ain, Canada, and the United States, edited by Harold
Coward, John R. Hinnels, and Raymond Brady Wil-
liams, 173–189 (Albany: State University of New York
Press, 2000); Rheem A. Meshal, “Banners of Faith and
Identities in Construct: The Hijab in Canada.” In The
Muslim Veil in North America: Issues and Debates, edited
by Sajida Sultana Alvi, Hooma Hoodfar, and Sheila
McDonough, 72–104 (Toronto: Women’s Press, 2003);
Regula Qureshi, “Transcending Space: Recitation and
Community among South Asian Muslims in Canada.”
In Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe,
edited by Barbara Metcalf, 46–64 (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1996); A[sma] Rashid, 1981 Census
of Canada: The Muslim Canadians, A Profile (Ottawa:
Statistics Canada, 1992).
cat
During his travels in syria, the American Roman-
tic poet and journalist Bayard Taylor (1825–78)
encountered an unprecedented sight: a hospital
where cats roamed freely and were sheltered,
cared for, and fed. This institution was funded
by a private endowment (waqf) that supplied
veterinary care, food, and caretakers’ wages. The
British Orientalist and sometime denizen of Cairo
Edward W. Lane (1801–76) described a cat garden
that was originally endowed by the 13th-century
ruler al-Zahir Baybars (r. 1260–77). At a time
when European town dwellers ate cats or killed
them by papal decree (which led to rising rat
populations that may have hastened the spread of
plagues), cats enjoyed life in arab cities in ways
that signal their special relationship with Arabs
generally and Muslims in particular.
The cat is the quintessential pet in Islam.
According to a hadith, “Love of cats is an aspect
of faith.” Other hadiths prohibit the persecution
and killing of cats. But it is because the cat is
considered pure that it is welcomed in homes; a
Muslim may eat food that cats have sampled or
perform ablUtions with water from which they
have drunk. Such rulings are often accompa-
nied by biographical snippets that demonstrate
mUhammad’s fondness for cats. He took care of
the kittens that a cat was allowed to have on his
cloak, and he cut off his sleeve rather than disturb
a sleeping cat when he had to rise for prayers. His
own cat was purportedly named Muizza, and he
invented the nickname of the famous companion
and hadith transmitter Abu Hurayra (Father of
the Kitten) because the latter was always accom-
panied by his cat. According to legend, it was this
cat that saved Muhammad from a snake. Until
recently, Arab farmers also told of cats that warned
or protected them against snakes.
Cats were guardians of food stores and gra-
naries and, consequently, important members of
the environmental network that sustained cities.
In the text- and paper-based cultures of Arab-Isl-
amicate cities, they protected books against mice
and became friends to bibliophiles and scholars
with whom they sometimes appear in paintings.
The cat’s symbiotic relationship with people and
(crowded) cities is reflected in the account of the
cat’s creation in al-Damiri’s (ca. 1341–1405) Book
of Animals: when the animals on Noah’s Ark com-
plained of mice, God caused the lion to sneeze
and so created the first cat. Cats continue to play
this role in modern cities, where they prowl the
streets in pest patrols and keep impurities outside
the home. The cat’s enemy is the lofty skyscraper,cat 131 J