Calormen
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In C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series of novels, Calormen is a large country to the south and east of Narnia. Lewis derived its name from the Greek root "calor", meaning "heat". 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. The border of Calormen also extends to an ocean.
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 feature Calormen, while some of the other books have peripheral references. In The Horse and His Boy the main characters escape from Calormen to Archenland and Narnia whilst the Calormen cavalry under Prince Rabadash attempts to invade Narnia and capture the Narnian Queen Susan for his bride. The cavalry is rebuffed at the gates of the Kingdom of Archenland. In The Last Battle, high levels of trade and travel exist between Narnia and Calormen, and a successful invasion by the Calormene military precipitates the end of the Narnian universe.
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. In The Last Battle, Tash serves as a suppositional Satan figure, in opposition to the Christ-like Aslan.
Calormene culture is strongly derived from Turkish and Persian culture and civilization, presented in the tradition of the medieval Arabic literature, the Arabian Nights. Flowing robes, turbans and wooden shoes with an upturned point at the toe are common items of clothing, and the preferred weapon is the scimitar. The people of Calormen are very concerned with maintaining honour and precedence, often speak in maxims, quote ancient poets, and are generally characterized within the Narnian chronicles as being rapacious, avaricious, frivolous, indolent, and corrupt (though the Tarkheena Aravis of The Horse and His Boy is a notable exception to the rule). Their style of speech is akin to that of the people in the ancient Persian Shahnama by the poet Ferdowsi. They are described as having dark skin, and the men commonly wear beards; the nobles oiled beards. The Narnians view Calormen with distaste because of their support of institutionalised slavery and the cruelty of Calormene nobles to their people and animals. The Calormenes in turn view Narnia and Archenland as barbarous lands inhabited by "demons" (one of which they know as Aslan). The male and female nobles of Calormen are referred to respectively as Tarkaans and Tarkheenas.
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