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Ahoshta Tarkaan was a Calormene Tarkaan (lord) and Grand Vizier. Ahoshta managed to climb the social ladder of Calormen (not an easy task) through (according to Aravis) flattery and evil advice.
Of "base birth" (i.e., a commoner), he rose to being a Tarkaan and, being very close to the Tisroc, he was appointed Grand Vizier after the death of Axartha Tarkaan, the previous advisor.
Ahoshta Tarkaan in his usual position
He met with the Tisroc in a meeting, where he was portrayed as being groveling and sycophantic, bowing completely prostrate before the king, and accepting kicks in the rump by the uppity Prince Rabadash.
Ahoshta was engaged to the Tarkheena Aravis in the manner of an arranged marriage, an event which she claimed was part of a plot by her wicked stepmother to get rid of her husband's child.
Aravis, however, hated Ahoshta, for several reasons: his low birth, his ape-like face, and his plotting and trickery. In addition he was about sixty, while she was much younger (while her age is never explicitly stated, she is estimated to be around twelve or thirteen years old; she is certainly no older than her early teens).
As a result, she fled from Calormen to Narnia, along with Hwin, her mare who was actually a Talking Horse. After she and her friend Lasaraleen saw him before the Tisroc, the latter tried to point out to Aravis her fiancé's importance, but Aravis only found him even less appealing, openly criticizing him for groveling like a slave, before seeking revenge by encouraging the Tisroc to plot his son's death.