Calormen
Encyclopedia
In C. S. Lewis
's Chronicles of Narnia series of novels, Calormen (icon) is a large country to the southeast of Narnia. Lewis derived its name from the Latin calor, meaning "heat". When used as an adjective
Lewis spelled the name with an 'e' at the end (e.g. a Calormene (ˈ) soldier). Narnia and Calormen are separated by a large desert
and the country of Archenland
. In The Horse and His Boy
Calormen is described as being many times the size of its northern neighbours, and it is implied that its army is always either conquering more land or keeping down rebellions, in wars with which neither Narnia or Archenland are involved. The border of the Calormene Empire extends from the Western Mountains to the Great Eastern Ocean. The Calormene capital city is Tashbaan, a vast, walled metropolis near the northern desert separating Calormen from its northern neighbors, located near the mouth of the Calormen River.
, Calormen was founded by Archen outlaws, who traveled over the Great Desert to the south some 24 years after Archenland
's founding. In an alternative theory, Calormen was founded by people accidentally crossing into Calormen from our world through a Middle Eastern portal (similar to the English wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), which was subsequently lost or destroyed, preventing their return. The Calormenes speak a flowery version of the standard English
favoured by both human and animal Narnians, which might support this argument; however, Jadis
also speaks English. The reason for the ancient Persian
, Mughal
, and Ottoman Turkish
aspects of Calormene culture, or the origin of their religion, was not satisfactorily explained.
Throughout the times covered by the Chronicles of Narnia, Calormen and Narnia maintain an uneasy, albeit generally peaceable, coexistence. The Horse and His Boy
and The Last Battle
contain plot lines that focus on Calormen, while some of the other books have peripheral references. In The Horse and His Boy the main characters (one a young member of the Calormene nobility) escape from Calormen to Archenland and Narnia whilst the Calormene cavalry
under Prince Rabadash
attempts to invade Narnia and capture the Narnian Queen Susan
for his bride. The rather small (200 horse) Calormene invasion force is rebuffed at the gates of the Kingdom of Archenland
. In The Last Battle, some level of trade and travel exist between Narnia and Calormen, and a successful invasion by the Calormene military precipitates the end of the Narnian universe.
Calormenes are described as dark-skinned, with the men mostly bearded. Flowing robes, turban
s and wooden shoes with an upturned point at the toe are common items of clothing, and the preferred weapon is the scimitar
. Lavish palaces are present in the Calormene capital Tashbaan. The overall leitmotif of Calormene culture is portrayed as ornate to the point of ostentation. The people of Calormen are concerned with maintaining honour and precedent, often speaking in maxims and quoting their ancient poets. Veneration of elders and absolute deference to power are marks of Calormene society. Power and wealth determine class and social standing, and slavery is commonplace. The unit of currency is the Crescent
. Narnians hold Calormenes in disdain for their treatment of animals and slaves. Conversely, Calormenes refer to the human inhabitants of Narnia as "barbarians". All of this appears quite consistent with the Osmanli Turkish
Ottoman Empire
(1299-1923), its known and purported splendor, rigid class structure, and the always-volatile relationship with many of its European neighbors.
The ruler of Calormen is called the Tisroc
and is believed by the Calormene people to have descended in a direct line from the god Tash
, whom the people worship in addition to other gods and goddesses. Calormenes always follow a mention of the Tisroc with the phrase "may he live forever" . Below the Tisroc are his sons (princes), a Grand Vizier, and the nobled class, who are addressed as Tarkaans and Tarkheenas. The nobility have a band of gold
on their arm and their marriages are usually arranged at a young age. Beneath them are soldiers of the empire's vast army, merchants, and the peasantry, with slaves being the lowest rung on the social ladder. The Calormene leaders are portrayed as quite war-like, and the Tisrocs generally seem to have a wish to conquer the "barbarian" lands to their north.
and useful maxims." It includes such pithy sentiments as the following, which doubtless lose something in the translation:
Calormenes disparage Narnian poetry, contending that it is all about things like love and war and not about useful maxims, but when the Calormen-raised Shasta
and Aravis
first hear Narnian (or Archenland
ish) poetry they find it much more exciting. Calormen also prizes the art of story-telling, which, according to Lewis, forms part of the education of the nobility. The talking horse Bree
, though not fond of most things Calormene, thoroughly enjoys a story told in Calormene style by Aravis.
He also reveals the motivation for Calormene attempts to invade Archenland and, ultimately, Narnia, as a refusal to abide the thought of free countries so close to the border of the Calormene empire, as illustrated by this speech given to the Tisroc:
In contrast, the kings and queens of Narnia and Archenland, as rulers of free people, hold themselves responsible for the well-being of their subjects. As King Lune tells Shasta/Cor:
has been particularly aggressive, calling the books "blatantly racist" and in an interview with The Observer
, criticised the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by saying the books contained "a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic, and reactionary prejudice".
Aravis
, the heroine in The Horse and His Boy
, and the other people of Calormen are described as having dark skin. They also bear a resemblance to Indians and darker skinned Arabs. Shasta, the hero in The Horse and His Boy (who is originally from Archenland) and the other Narnians are fair-skinned and are seen to be royal in a toned down, romanticized way somewhat relative to perceptions of old English Royalty. Once they are older, Aravis and Shasta have a son of mixed race, Ram the Great, who becomes "the most famous of the kings of Archenland". The presentation appears to owe something to romantic epics such as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso
and Tasso
's Gerusalemme Liberata, in which the "Saracens" are portrayed at once as benighted unbelievers and as chivalrous knights and ladies who occasionally convert to Christianity and marry into the Christian aristocracy: the valiant tomboy Aravis bears some resemblance to Marfisa
in the epics.
The racism critique is based on a representation of the Calormenes as enemies of Aslan and Narnia. The Calormenes are described by vicious renegade Dwarfs as "Darkies" which is the only expression of bigotry used and by demonstrably oafish individuals (in The Last Battle
). Calormenes live in a desert, wear turbans and pointy slippers, their nobleman are called Tarkaans (similar to the medieval Central Asia
n title tarkhan
), they are armed with scimitars, and use the crescent symbol on their money. Such descriptions can be compared with the historic attire of peoples throughout the Middle Eastern and Asian regions, upon whose physical appearances the Calormenes may have been based. The Calormenes also conform to a number of racist stereotypes of Arabs as well—they are cruel, greedy, cowardly, backstabbing, lazy and prone to gross indulgence, as well as owning slaves. However, they are praised warmly for their storytelling.
The Calormene religion does not seem to be modeled on any of the monotheistic religions that are commonly practiced in these regions, such as Islam—though there may be similarities in pre-Muhammad
Arab religions. Instead, the Calormenes are polytheistic and worship a plethora of gods, including the primary god Tash
(meaning "stone" in Turkish), who is portrayed as a corporeal, stereotypical Satan
ic being requiring human sacrifices from his followers. The religion of the Calormenes seems more likely to have been based on early Canaanite
and Carthaginian
religion, which also required human sacrifice, and was portrayed as the ultimate in diabolism in G. K. Chesterton
's The Everlasting Man
, a book which Lewis admired. The unimaginative and business-minded nature of the Calormenes may also have been based on Chesterton's portrayal of Carthage. In the purely literary sense, however, the depiction of Calormene religion may owe something to the bogey image of Islam
found in medieval romances: see Mahound
and Termagant
. There are also aspects of Calormene culture, climate, and physical characteristics that suggest India, such as the multiple arms of Tash, similar to depictions of Indian gods, or the name Shasta
, which is shared by a Hindu deity. Parts of the culture also seem to have been based on E. Nesbit's depiction of Babylon (such as "Tisroc
" as the name of the ruler, and appending "may he live forever" to mentions of this king).
The Chronicles have a British Victorian era
flavour that was much in fashion during his lifetime, but may now be seen as politically incorrect. Of Lewis, Kyrie O'Connor
writes: "In his time, people thought it was amusing to make fun of other cultures. We don't. Read the stories, ask questions, and remember that the person who wrote this story was altogether too human." Claims of racism can be seen as countered by Lewis's positive portrayal of two Calormenes and the lack of racism shown to them by Narnian nobility. In The Horse and His Boy, the female protagonist Aravis
is a Calormene noblewoman who is accepted whole-heartedly by the Archenlanders and Narnians, and comes to marry Cor, a prince of a more European ethnicity; a progressive and bold statement by Lewis in a time when mixed relationships were neither as common nor accepted as they have been in more recent years. In The Last Battle, the Calormene Emeth
is deemed a worthy person by Aslan regardless of his skin colour and despite the fact that he was a worshipper of Tash. Indeed Lewis goes on to mention in The Last Battle that those who worship Tash and who are virtuous are in fact worshipping Aslan, and those who are immoral and who worship Aslan are in fact worshipping Tash:
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's Chronicles of Narnia series of novels, Calormen (icon) is a large country to the southeast of Narnia. Lewis derived its name from the Latin calor, meaning "heat". When used as an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
Lewis spelled the name with an 'e' at the end (e.g. a Calormene (ˈ) soldier). Narnia and Calormen are separated by a large desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
and the country of Archenland
Archenland
In C. S. Lewis's fantasy novels the Chronicles of Narnia, Archenland is a nation to the south of Narnia, and to the north of both nations' occasional enemy, Calormen. Its borders are formed by mountains to the north and by the River Winding Arrow to the south...
. In The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the books as opposed to the dates of their...
Calormen is described as being many times the size of its northern neighbours, and it is implied that its army is always either conquering more land or keeping down rebellions, in wars with which neither Narnia or Archenland are involved. The border of the Calormene Empire extends from the Western Mountains to the Great Eastern Ocean. The Calormene capital city is Tashbaan, a vast, walled metropolis near the northern desert separating Calormen from its northern neighbors, located near the mouth of the Calormen River.
History
The origins of Calormen and the Calormenes are not made clear during the Chronicles. According to the Narnian timeline published by Walter HooperWalter Hooper
Walter McGehee Hooper is a trustee and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. Born in Reidsville, North Carolina, U.S., he earned an M.A. in education and was an instructor in English at the University of Kentucky in the early 1960s. As a visitor to England, he served briefly as Lewis's...
, Calormen was founded by Archen outlaws, who traveled over the Great Desert to the south some 24 years after Archenland
Archenland
In C. S. Lewis's fantasy novels the Chronicles of Narnia, Archenland is a nation to the south of Narnia, and to the north of both nations' occasional enemy, Calormen. Its borders are formed by mountains to the north and by the River Winding Arrow to the south...
's founding. In an alternative theory, Calormen was founded by people accidentally crossing into Calormen from our world through a Middle Eastern portal (similar to the English wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), which was subsequently lost or destroyed, preventing their return. The Calormenes speak a flowery version of the standard English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
favoured by both human and animal Narnians, which might support this argument; however, Jadis
White Witch
Jadis is the main antagonist of The Magician's Nephew and of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in C.S. Lewis' series, The Chronicles of Narnia...
also speaks English. The reason for the ancient Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
, Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
, and Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
aspects of Calormene culture, or the origin of their religion, was not satisfactorily explained.
Throughout the times covered by the Chronicles of Narnia, Calormen and Narnia maintain an uneasy, albeit generally peaceable, coexistence. The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the books as opposed to the dates of their...
and The Last Battle
The Last Battle
The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. It won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in Literature in 1956.-Plot summary:In The Last Battle, Lewis brings The Chronicles of Narnia to an end...
contain plot lines that focus on Calormen, while some of the other books have peripheral references. In The Horse and His Boy the main characters (one a young member of the Calormene nobility) escape from Calormen to Archenland and Narnia whilst the Calormene cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
under Prince Rabadash
Prince Rabadash
Prince Rabadash is a human character and the main antagonist in C. S. Lewis's fantasy novel The Horse and His Boy. Rabadash is the heir to the throne of Calormen, being the eldest son of the Tisroc...
attempts to invade Narnia and capture the Narnian Queen Susan
Susan Pevensie
Susan Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. Susan is the elder sister and the second eldest Pevensie child. She appears in three of the seven books—as a child in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, and as an adult in The Horse and His Boy...
for his bride. The rather small (200 horse) Calormene invasion force is rebuffed at the gates of the Kingdom of Archenland
Archenland
In C. S. Lewis's fantasy novels the Chronicles of Narnia, Archenland is a nation to the south of Narnia, and to the north of both nations' occasional enemy, Calormen. Its borders are formed by mountains to the north and by the River Winding Arrow to the south...
. In The Last Battle, some level of trade and travel exist between Narnia and Calormen, and a successful invasion by the Calormene military precipitates the end of the Narnian universe.
Calormenes are described as dark-skinned, with the men mostly bearded. Flowing robes, turban
Turban
In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
s and wooden shoes with an upturned point at the toe are common items of clothing, and the preferred weapon is the scimitar
Scimitar
A scimitar is a backsword or sabre with a curved blade, originating in Southwest Asia .The Arabic term saif translates to "sword" in general, but is normally taken to refer to the scimitar type of curved backsword in particular.The curved sword or "scimitar" was widespread throughout the Muslim...
. Lavish palaces are present in the Calormene capital Tashbaan. The overall leitmotif of Calormene culture is portrayed as ornate to the point of ostentation. The people of Calormen are concerned with maintaining honour and precedent, often speaking in maxims and quoting their ancient poets. Veneration of elders and absolute deference to power are marks of Calormene society. Power and wealth determine class and social standing, and slavery is commonplace. The unit of currency is the Crescent
Crescent
In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points .In astronomy, a crescent...
. Narnians hold Calormenes in disdain for their treatment of animals and slaves. Conversely, Calormenes refer to the human inhabitants of Narnia as "barbarians". All of this appears quite consistent with the Osmanli Turkish
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
(1299-1923), its known and purported splendor, rigid class structure, and the always-volatile relationship with many of its European neighbors.
The ruler of Calormen is called the Tisroc
Tisroc
In C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, a Tisroc is a ruler of Calormen. His position is most like that of a Pharaoh, in that he is an absolute monarch, and is believed to be descended from the Calormen god Tash. Whenever a Calormen citizen speaks of the Tisroc, he adds "may he live for ever," and...
and is believed by the Calormene people to have descended in a direct line from the god Tash
Tash (Narnia)
Tash is a fictional character found in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. He is an antagonist in the novels The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle....
, whom the people worship in addition to other gods and goddesses. Calormenes always follow a mention of the Tisroc with the phrase "may he live forever" . Below the Tisroc are his sons (princes), a Grand Vizier, and the nobled class, who are addressed as Tarkaans and Tarkheenas. The nobility have a band of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
on their arm and their marriages are usually arranged at a young age. Beneath them are soldiers of the empire's vast army, merchants, and the peasantry, with slaves being the lowest rung on the social ladder. The Calormene leaders are portrayed as quite war-like, and the Tisrocs generally seem to have a wish to conquer the "barbarian" lands to their north.
Calormene Poetry
The poetry of Calormen is prolix, sententious, and moralizing, "full of choice apophthegmsAdage
An adage is a short but memorable saying which holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people, or that has gained some credibility through its long use....
and useful maxims." It includes such pithy sentiments as the following, which doubtless lose something in the translation:
- Application to business
- is the root of prosperity
- but those who ask questions
- that do not concern them
- are steering the ship of folly
- towards the rock of indigence.
- Natural affection is stronger than soup
- and offspring more precious than carbuncles.
- He who attempts to deceive the judicious
- is already baring his back for the scourge.
- Swords can be kept off with shields
- but the Eye of Wisdom pierces through every defence.
- Deep draughts from the fountain of reason are desirable
- in order to extinguish the fire of youthful love.
Calormenes disparage Narnian poetry, contending that it is all about things like love and war and not about useful maxims, but when the Calormen-raised Shasta
Shasta (Narnia)
Shasta, later known as Cor of Archenland, is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. He is the principal character in the fifth book published in the series, The Horse and His Boy, which is the third book chronologically...
and Aravis
Aravis
Aravis is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. She is a main character in The Horse and His Boy.Aravis is a young Tarkheena, a female member of the ruling nobility of Calormen...
first hear Narnian (or Archenland
Archenland
In C. S. Lewis's fantasy novels the Chronicles of Narnia, Archenland is a nation to the south of Narnia, and to the north of both nations' occasional enemy, Calormen. Its borders are formed by mountains to the north and by the River Winding Arrow to the south...
ish) poetry they find it much more exciting. Calormen also prizes the art of story-telling, which, according to Lewis, forms part of the education of the nobility. The talking horse Bree
Bree (Narnia)
Bree is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. He is one of the title characters, and is featured prominently in the fifth book, The Horse and His Boy, Bree was born as a free talking beast in the Land of Narnia, but was captured as a colt by the Calormenes, and has lived...
, though not fond of most things Calormene, thoroughly enjoys a story told in Calormene style by Aravis.
Concepts of freedom and slavery
In The Horse and His Boy, Lewis uses the cultural settings of Narnia, Archenland, and Calormen to develop a theme of freedom in contrast to slavery. Lewis depicts the Calormene culture as one in which a primary guiding principle is that the weak must make way for the strong:For in Tashbaan there is only one traffic regulation, which is that everyone who is less important has to get out of the way for everyone who is more important; unless you want a cut from a whip or a punch from the butt end of a spear.
He also reveals the motivation for Calormene attempts to invade Archenland and, ultimately, Narnia, as a refusal to abide the thought of free countries so close to the border of the Calormene empire, as illustrated by this speech given to the Tisroc:
"These little barbarian countries that call themselves free (which is as much to say, idle, disordered, and unprofitable) are hateful to the gods and to all persons of discernment".
In contrast, the kings and queens of Narnia and Archenland, as rulers of free people, hold themselves responsible for the well-being of their subjects. As King Lune tells Shasta/Cor:
"For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land."
Accusations of racism
C.S. Lewis has been accused of racism, particularly in his depiction of the Calormenes. The novelist Philip PullmanPhilip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
has been particularly aggressive, calling the books "blatantly racist" and in an interview with The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, criticised the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 epic fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published and second chronological novel in C. S. Lewis's children's epic fantasy series, The Chronicles of...
by saying the books contained "a peevish blend of racist, misogynistic, and reactionary prejudice".
Aravis
Aravis
Aravis is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. She is a main character in The Horse and His Boy.Aravis is a young Tarkheena, a female member of the ruling nobility of Calormen...
, the heroine in The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the books as opposed to the dates of their...
, and the other people of Calormen are described as having dark skin. They also bear a resemblance to Indians and darker skinned Arabs. Shasta, the hero in The Horse and His Boy (who is originally from Archenland) and the other Narnians are fair-skinned and are seen to be royal in a toned down, romanticized way somewhat relative to perceptions of old English Royalty. Once they are older, Aravis and Shasta have a son of mixed race, Ram the Great, who becomes "the most famous of the kings of Archenland". The presentation appears to owe something to romantic epics such as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was not published in its complete form until 1532...
and Tasso
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...
's Gerusalemme Liberata, in which the "Saracens" are portrayed at once as benighted unbelievers and as chivalrous knights and ladies who occasionally convert to Christianity and marry into the Christian aristocracy: the valiant tomboy Aravis bears some resemblance to Marfisa
Marfisa
Marfisa is a character in the Italian romantic epics Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo and Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. She is the sister of Ruggiero but was separated from him in early childhood. She becomes queen of India and fights as a warrior for the Saracens, taking part in...
in the epics.
The racism critique is based on a representation of the Calormenes as enemies of Aslan and Narnia. The Calormenes are described by vicious renegade Dwarfs as "Darkies" which is the only expression of bigotry used and by demonstrably oafish individuals (in The Last Battle
The Last Battle
The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. It won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in Literature in 1956.-Plot summary:In The Last Battle, Lewis brings The Chronicles of Narnia to an end...
). Calormenes live in a desert, wear turbans and pointy slippers, their nobleman are called Tarkaans (similar to the medieval Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
n title tarkhan
Tarkhan
Tarkhan is an ancient Central Asian title used by various Indo-European Tarkhan (Old Turkic Tarqan; Mongolian: Darkhan; ; ; ; alternative spellings Tarkan, Tarkhaan, Tarqan, Tarchan, Tarxan, Tarcan or Targan) is an ancient Central Asian title used by various Indo-European Tarkhan (Old Turkic...
), they are armed with scimitars, and use the crescent symbol on their money. Such descriptions can be compared with the historic attire of peoples throughout the Middle Eastern and Asian regions, upon whose physical appearances the Calormenes may have been based. The Calormenes also conform to a number of racist stereotypes of Arabs as well—they are cruel, greedy, cowardly, backstabbing, lazy and prone to gross indulgence, as well as owning slaves. However, they are praised warmly for their storytelling.
The Calormene religion does not seem to be modeled on any of the monotheistic religions that are commonly practiced in these regions, such as Islam—though there may be similarities in pre-Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
Arab religions. Instead, the Calormenes are polytheistic and worship a plethora of gods, including the primary god Tash
Tash (Narnia)
Tash is a fictional character found in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. He is an antagonist in the novels The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle....
(meaning "stone" in Turkish), who is portrayed as a corporeal, stereotypical Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
ic being requiring human sacrifices from his followers. The religion of the Calormenes seems more likely to have been based on early Canaanite
Canaanite religion
Canaanite religion is the name for the group of Ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries of the Common Era....
and Carthaginian
Religion in Carthage
The religion of Carthage in North Africa was a direct continuation of the polytheistic Phoenician religion of the Levant, with significant local modifications. Controversy prevails regarding the possible existence and practice of propitiatory child sacrifice in the religion of...
religion, which also required human sacrifice, and was portrayed as the ultimate in diabolism in G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
's The Everlasting Man
The Everlasting Man
The Everlasting Man is a two-part history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity, by G. K. Chesterton. Published in 1925, it is to some extent a deliberate rebuttal of H. G. Wells’ Outline of History, which embraced the evolutionary origins of humanity and denied the divinity of Jesus...
, a book which Lewis admired. The unimaginative and business-minded nature of the Calormenes may also have been based on Chesterton's portrayal of Carthage. In the purely literary sense, however, the depiction of Calormene religion may owe something to the bogey image of Islam
Medieval Christian view of Muhammad
Medieval Christian views on Muhammad were largely antagonistic. During the Middle Ages, the Christian world was actively in opposition to or showed hostility toward Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. The earliest Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from Byzantine sources, written shortly after...
found in medieval romances: see Mahound
Mahound
Mahound or Mahoun is a variant form of the name Muhammad, often found in Medieval and later European literature. This version of the name, or variants of it, came to be strongly associated with anti-Muslim attitudes in Western Christendom...
and Termagant
Termagant
In Medieval Europe, Termagant was the name given to a god that the Europeans believed Muslims worshipped.-Origin of the concept:European literature from the Middle Ages often referred to Muslims as pagans, with sobriquets such as the paynim foe...
. There are also aspects of Calormene culture, climate, and physical characteristics that suggest India, such as the multiple arms of Tash, similar to depictions of Indian gods, or the name Shasta
Shasta
Shasta can be a reference to a Native American tribe, and also various locations in Northern California. The term is applied to numerous natural features in the same general vicinity, and many other items associated with the area...
, which is shared by a Hindu deity. Parts of the culture also seem to have been based on E. Nesbit's depiction of Babylon (such as "Tisroc
Tisroc
In C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, a Tisroc is a ruler of Calormen. His position is most like that of a Pharaoh, in that he is an absolute monarch, and is believed to be descended from the Calormen god Tash. Whenever a Calormen citizen speaks of the Tisroc, he adds "may he live for ever," and...
" as the name of the ruler, and appending "may he live forever" to mentions of this king).
The Chronicles have a British Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
flavour that was much in fashion during his lifetime, but may now be seen as politically incorrect. Of Lewis, Kyrie O'Connor
Kyrie O'Connor
-Biography:Born in Rochester, New York, she graduated cum laude from Wesleyan University in 1976. She is the sister of Candace O'Connor.She worked for 14 years at the Hartford Courant rising to the rank of assistant managing editor for features. O'Connor led the creation and/or redesign of many of...
writes: "In his time, people thought it was amusing to make fun of other cultures. We don't. Read the stories, ask questions, and remember that the person who wrote this story was altogether too human." Claims of racism can be seen as countered by Lewis's positive portrayal of two Calormenes and the lack of racism shown to them by Narnian nobility. In The Horse and His Boy, the female protagonist Aravis
Aravis
Aravis is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. She is a main character in The Horse and His Boy.Aravis is a young Tarkheena, a female member of the ruling nobility of Calormen...
is a Calormene noblewoman who is accepted whole-heartedly by the Archenlanders and Narnians, and comes to marry Cor, a prince of a more European ethnicity; a progressive and bold statement by Lewis in a time when mixed relationships were neither as common nor accepted as they have been in more recent years. In The Last Battle, the Calormene Emeth
Emeth
Emeth is a Calormene character from C. S. Lewis's book The Last Battle . As a Calormene, Emeth was raised to follow Tash, the antithesis of Aslan, and did so with an emphatic devotion and loyalty...
is deemed a worthy person by Aslan regardless of his skin colour and despite the fact that he was a worshipper of Tash. Indeed Lewis goes on to mention in The Last Battle that those who worship Tash and who are virtuous are in fact worshipping Aslan, and those who are immoral and who worship Aslan are in fact worshipping Tash:
I and [Tash] are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.