The Abencerrages or Abencerrajes (from the Arabic for "Saddler's Son")

Chambers Biographical Dictionary ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'' provides concise descriptions of over 18,000 notable figures from Britain and the rest of the world. It was first published in 1897. The publishers, Chambers Harrap, who were formerly based in Edinburgh, clai ...

, , page 3 were a family or faction that is said to have held a prominent position in the

Kingdom of Granada ) , common_languages = Official language:Classical ArabicOther languages: Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic, Berber, Ladino , capital = Granada , religion = Majority religion:Sunni IslamMinority religions:Roman ...

in the 15th century. 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. Little is known of the family with certainty. The

records that they arrived in Spain in the 8th century 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 Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

banu Edin), and the cruel treatment to which the former were subjected. J. P. de Florian's ''Gonsalve de Cordoue'' and Chateaubriand's ''Le dernier des Abencerrages'' are adaptations of Pérez de Hita's story. 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.

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

in ''

Tales of the Alhambra ''Tales of the Alhambra'' (1832) is a collection of essays, verbal sketches and stories by American author Washington Irving (1783–1859) inspired by, and partly written during, his 1828 visit to the palace/fortress complex known as the Alhambr ...

'' (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, the novella '' The Abencerraje'' and two operas ('' Les Abencérages'', by Luigi Cherubini, and '' L'esule di Granata'', by Giacomo Meyerbeer)''Zelmar ou L'asile; ou, Les Abencerages'' a drame lyriqueby

André Grétry André Ernest Modeste Grétry (; baptised 11 February 1741; died 24 September 1813) was a composer from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (present-day Belgium), who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous ...

, composed in 1801, remained unperformed. mention the legend.

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