This is a somewhat controversial question, but as a fan of ASOIAF, it has always slightly bothered me that the Martells are portrayed as Indian when they would actually be Arab. Do you have any opinion on this?
I actually think this is a very interesting question, and I’m aware that my answer will probably be controversial as well but i don’t give a shit honestly.
Yes, it bothers me too, but not because I think Dorne is “just Arab” in a simplistic sense. It bothers me because what George Martin is clearly drawing from is the medieval Arab Mediterranean world, and especially Al-Andalus, and that often gets flattened into a generic, British-orientalist “exotic East” aesthetic that owes far more to colonial India than to the medieval Mediterranean.
Martin has explicitly said that Dorne is inspired in part by Al-Andalus that is, the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule, before Spain even existed as a unified Catholic kingdom. Al-Andalus was part of the broader medieval Arab empire that stretched across North Africa and into southern Europe. And that world was incredibly diverse in terms of phenotype, culture, and internal mixture.
Within that context, you had darker North African phenotypes, you had what we might today consider typically Arab phenotypes (Moroccan, Tunisian, Egyptian, etc.), and you also had southern European populations who, while lighter-skinned, were not phenotypically the same as northern Europeans. As a Spaniard, I can tell you that southern Europeans are not the same, physically, as northern Europeans, even if all of us are lazily grouped together as “white.” A Spaniard or an Italian does not look like a Swede. And if we’re being honest, what Westeros codes as “white” in houses like the Starks, Lannisters, or Tyrells is much closer to northern or central Europe than to the Mediterranean.
In the books, Martin is actually very specific: there are three groups of Dornish. The sand Dornish are the darkest. The salty Dornish—like the Martells—are typically olive-skinned, dark-haired, and clearly marked as different from the rest of Westeros. The stony Dornish, closer to the borders, have more Andal blood and can be lighter, even fair. That’s already a nuanced, multi-layered depiction. Which is not a coincidence, because the three types of Dornish line up almost perfectly with the phenotypical differences you find among Mediterranean populations from different regions.
So when Dorne gets visually translated into something that looks like a romanticised nineteenth-century British vision of India, that’s where it starts to feel off. India and medieval Al-Andalus are not interchangeable. Their histories, cultures, aesthetics, and phenotypes are not the same. And yet, in a lot of fan art and mood boards, Dornish women are styled as if they were straight out of a colonial fantasy of the Raj. That doesn’t reflect the textual inspiration very well.
For example, I’ve seen many fan interpretations of Arianne Martell that portray her as Indian. Personally, I’ve had a face claim for years: Hiba Abouk, a Spanish actress of Tunisian origin. For me, that North African/Mediterranean Arab phenotype—olive skin, dark hair, sharp features—is exactly what I imagine for the Martells. That feels much closer to what Martin describes than a South Asian aesthetic filtered through British orientalism.
This is also why I never understood the criticism of Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell. Phenotypically, he is much closer to what I imagine for Oberyn than a South Asian actor would be. Ideally, I might have cast an Arab actor. But Pedro Pascal, as a Chilean actor of Spanish descent, carries strong Mediterranean features that align far more naturally with that Al-Andalus/Arab Mediterranean inspiration than with colonial India.
Now, why does this misalignment keep happening? I don’t think it’s just ignorance about medieval Mediterranean history, though that certainly plays a role. I do think contemporary Islamophobia may also be part of it. There’s often a visible discomfort in mainstream media with explicitly Arab or Muslim aesthetics and identities. So instead, we get a safer, more “exotic but distant” orientalism, one that feels culturally detached and historically imprecise.
The irony is that you don’t lose racial diversity by being faithful to the books. Quite the opposite. Dorne, as written, is already racially and culturally diverse. You don’t need to import British colonial imagery to make it “ethnic.” The sand and salty Dornish would not be read as white in the same way as northern Westerosi. Their difference is textual and intentional.
For me, Dorne is fundamentally rooted in Al-Andalus and the medieval Arab Mediterranean world. Not exclusively, perhaps, but overwhelmingly. And when adaptations or fan works drift too far into a generic South Asian or colonial-orientalist aesthetic, it jars because it ignores the specific historical and cultural texture Martin drew from.
So yes, I share your discomfort. Because I think its inspiration is quite clear, and that inspiration deserves to be understood and represented with a bit more historical and cultural awareness.
