My fictional family come from an entirely imaginary kingdom hidden high in the mountains on the northeast border between Iran and Turkmenistan. Such kingdoms, called khanates or kaganates, proliferated in the troubled times as one dynasty of Iranian rulers faded and another had not yet come to power.
From ancient times, westerners called Iran ‘Persia’ after the great empire Alexander the Great conquered more than 2000 years ago, and my hero occasionally uses that term when talking to the English. To those living in Iran, Persia was just one ancient kingdom in what was originally called Eran-shahr or Airan-shahr, which means ‘the place of the Aryans’. This evolved to become Iran-shahr and, by the time of my story, just Iran.
James’s horse is a Turkmen. His descendants today are Akhal Teke, one of the most beautiful horse breeds in the world, famed for their metallic shine, their endurance and their fierce loyalty.