The novel Lascar was an obsessive project for Tennant over the course of the last fifty years of his life, but one which remained incomplete at his death in 1987. The name Lascar, though now rarely used, was a term used to describe a sailor from India or other countries East of the Cape of Good Hope. The word derives from the Persian "Lashkar" meaning military camp and "al-askar", the Omani word for guard or soldier.