Les Lions d'Al-Rassan

The Lions of Al-Rassan is a historical fantasy novel by Canadian writer Guy Gavriel Kay. It is set in a peninsula of the same world in which The Sarantine Mosaic and The Last Light of the Sun are set, and is based on Moorish Spain. The novel concentrates on the relationships between the three peoples: the Kindath (analogous to the Jews), the Asharites (analogous to the Muslims), and the Jaddites (analogous to the Christians), although the religions of the Kindath, Asharites, and Jaddites, as described in the novel, bear no relation to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. The three protagonists in the novel are from each of these three races and religions: Jehane bet Ishak, a Kindath physician in Fezana (loosely based on Rebecca of York); Rodrigo Belmonte, a Jaddite captain of a company of cavalry (loosely based on El Cid); and Ammar ibn Khairan, an Asharite poet, mercenary, and advisor to King Almalik of Cartada (loosely based on Muhammad ibn Ammar).