What is the significance of the character Ashar ibn Ashar in The Sarantine Mosaic?
Many people have been puzzled by the appearance of the enigmatic figure of Ashar ibn Ashar in the Mosaic, a tribal leader who leaves his people and journeys “into the sands.” He seems greatly significant, he ‘changes the world soon after’ but nothing more is said about him in the book. Who is he? The Sarantine Mosaic is set in the same world as that of The Lions of Al-Rassan, but a few centuries beforehand. Ibn Ashar is the forerunner of Islam, GGK’s ‘Mohammed’ and this is a reference to the creation of a new religion that will change the world (particularly the Byzantine world that inspired Sarantium). The results of that change are part of what Lions is about. The Asharites are GGK’s equivalents of Moslems in Lions.
