All of those except for Greek and Roman resemble Calormen quite a bit. The culture based directly the most on Greco-Roman culture would be Telmarine as portrayed by the latest PC movie.

If they want to play it safe for the HHB movie and make sure that nobody comes up with the very interesting assumption that the Calormenes are Muslims (since they are not), I honestly think they should go with Ancient Egypt. That way they can present a distinctively pagan religion of the ancient world- and I do not think any modern Kemetic practicer will object.

Babylonia/Sumeria is an interesting choice that had not really been presented before. Since these cultures predate Islam, it could work.

Persia is okay. But Zoroastrianism is monotheistic (unless you count the bad guy as being a deity equal in power to the good guy). Which may be a good thing.

India would be fine as well, though India is not really a desert while Calormen seems more desert-like.

Honestly, the filmmakers should make it close to ancient Egypt. That way it would have all the cool elements like pyramids and hyeroglyphs- while their distinctive polytheism would assure that they are NOT bashing Islam. Finally, modern Egypt is over 10% Christian and thus not the most Muslim of countries- as well as being rather progressive in some ways (perhaps due to that >10% Christian population?). So if they go with portraying Calormen to be most like ancient Egypt, it would avoid possible controversies.

I think though, that the Calormens, if you take away there turbans, most resemble a combination of Babylonian and Persian cultures. The way C.S. Lewis described Tashban and their postal service and their marital customs and there dress (They weren't bare chested and they didn't shave there heads like the ancient Egyptians), it all points to the cultures aforementioned the best. Other cultures may work, but I don't think they work quite as well as a combination of Babylonian and Persian. As for ancient Egypt, personally, I think that is a stretch.

Just a little note for those who are wondering. I put the Roman and Greek in there because I can easily imagine Calormen architecture being very close to those two cultures, especially there houses and statues.

I don't think that there is a concrete country Lewis was trying to copy. I think that Calormen is just a big mixup. There is definatly alot from Persia & Arabia, but there are alot of other Eastern countries mixed in.

Yes, I agree that there isn't a concrete country that Calormen resembles. That is so good because if the Calormens can be betrayed as just that -- not a concrete culture of any country -- then nobody will be able to cry racism. That said, Calormen is a combination of some or other of the cultures that we see in this world. In this thread I asked people to pick the leading majority. As it stands, because the Calormen culture is so diverse, there a myriad of responses out there. Everyone sees the leading majority just a little bit different. Some people prefer garb as being a determining factor. So, they say that because the Calromens wear turbans that makes them very much Arabian. Others prefer to look at the Calormens as compaired to the Narnians themselves. They say that, because Narnians are clearly like a medieval culture, comparing them to an ancient culture doesn't make much sense. Someone like me, looks at the Calromens and pulls little bits of there culture together and tries to make sense of it all. Personally, I came up with Persia for reasons aforementioned in this thread. However, after looking at this thread I have now come up with a startling conclusion. C.S. Lewis has done an amazing feat. He has created a culture that really is only its own! Yes, I tell you, the Calromen culture best resembles... the Calormen culture. It is very obvious that Lewis did pull from cultures from across the world, but still, Calormen is one-hundred percent a culture unto itself. That is amazing!

I would have a lot of trouble voting for any one of the choices in this thread due to the fact that we're dealing not with a plethora of different cultures, but a unique and different culture in and of itself. Narnia is a different world so, logically, we cannot compare anything in our world to the Narnian world. Some generalisations can be made surrounding this point, but to look for cross-cultural similarities would be silly.

It's the events of a culture, and the cultures around it, that define said culture. The Calormenes wouldn't have experienced the same things as any culture in our world, and therefore deserves to stand on its own merit.

I personally imagined the Calormens to be Indian in look, but with Arabian clothes.
I never really thought about their culture or the look of their city... but the more I think about it, it reminds me of the ancient Egyptians! Random, yes, but just think about it. The Egyptians had a slaving system, good building structures, and chariots!
I don't really know anything about the Persians, so I can't agree on them...

I don't think it's silly to look at cultural similarities is silly. Lewis got his ideas from somewhere. If the Calormenes were real people they could possibly have a culture free of outside influence, but that can't be the case with a fictional people.

I think the Calormene culture is kind of a mish-mash of a lot of different "eastern" cultures, with some ancient stuff thrown in.