Editing Abencerrages

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[[File:El último abencerraje.jpg|thumb|''El último abencerraje''<br>(The last Abencerrage) by [[Ignacio Merino]]]]
[[File:Marià Fortuny - The Slaying of the Abencerrajes - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''The Slaying of the Abencerrages'',<br /> by [[Marià Fortuny]] (1870)]]
The '''Abencerrages''' or '''Abencerrajes''' ({{IPA|es|aβenθeˈraxes|label=Modern Spanish:}}, {{IPA|osp|aβent͡s̻eˈraʒes̺|lang|link=yes}}; from the [[Arabic]] {{langx|ar|ابن سراج|Ibn Sarrāj|Saddler's Son|label=none}},<ref name="CBD">[[Chambers Biographical Dictionary]], {{ISBN|0-550-18022-2}}, page 3</ref> {{pl.}} {{langx|ar|بنو سراج|Banū Sarrāj|label=none}}) were a family or faction that is said to have held a prominent position in the [[Emirate of Granada|Kingdom of Granada]] in the 15th century.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Abencerrages|volume=1|page=42}}</ref>

The name appears to have been derived from Yussuf ben-Serragh, the head of the tribe in the time of [[Muhammed VII, Sultan of Granada]] (1370–1408), who did that sovereign good service in his struggles to retain the crown of which he was three times deprived.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Little is known of the family with certainty. The [[Chambers Biographical Dictionary]] records that they arrived in Spain in the 8th century<ref name="CBD" /> but the name is familiar from the romance by [[Ginés Pérez de Hita]], ''Guerras civiles de Granada'', which celebrates the feuds of the Abencerrages and the rival family of the [[Benedin]] ([[Arabic]] banu Edin), and the cruel treatment to which the former were subjected. [[Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian|J. P. de Florian]]'s ''Gonsalve de Cordoue'' and [[François-René de Chateaubriand|Chateaubriand]]'s ''Le dernier des Abencerrages'' are adaptations of Pérez de Hita's story.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The story is told that one of the Abencerrages, having fallen in love with a lady of the royal family, was caught in the act of climbing up to her window. The assassinations were ordered by [[Ibrahim Benedin]], who had a feud with the family. He was enraged and shut up the whole family in one of the halls of the [[Alhambra]], and gave orders to kill them all. The apartment where this is said to have taken place is one of the most beautiful courts of the Alhambra, and is still called the Hall of the Abencerrages.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.alhambra-patronato.es/index.php/The-Hall-of-the-Abencerrages/163+M5d637b1e38d/0/|title = The Hall of the abencerrages|website=www.alhambra-patronato.es}}</ref>

[[Washington Irving]] in ''[[Tales of the Alhambra]]'' (1832) disagrees, saying the massacre was a fiction, but that a number of Abencerrages were killed in one of the battles at the time.  Nonetheless, many poems and plays, including ''[[Romance de la pérdida de Alhama]]'', the novella ''[[The Abencerraje]]'', and two operas (''[[Les Abencérages]]'', by [[Luigi Cherubini]], and ''[[L'esule di Granata]]'', by [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]])<ref>''Zelmar ou L'asile; ou, Les Abencerages'' a drame lyriqueby [[André Grétry]], composed in 1801, remained unperformed.</ref> mention the legend.

==Notes==
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== External links ==
*{{Commonscatinline}}
*{{wikisource-inline|Tales and Historic Scenes/The Abencerrage|'The Abencerrage', a poem by Felicia Hemans}}
*{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Abencerrages |short=x}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070912072444/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/i/irving/washington/i72a/part17.html ''The Abencerrages'']–Part 17 of [[Washington Irving]]'s ''[[Tales of the Alhambra]]''


[[Category:Nasrid dynasty]]