Abencerrages

The Abencerrages ( from the Arabic Banu بنو السراج s Saradsch, DMG Banū s Sarāǧ, Hispanicized Abencerrajes ) ​​were a noble Moorish family in Granada, came to Spain in the 8th century.

They were named after a member of the family, Yussef ben Zerragh, the confidant of King Mohammed VII of Granada, and were renowned for their tragic demise.

The Abencerrages were after - but novelistic - Historia de las guerras civiles de Granada of Ginés Perez as Hita (Alcalá 1604, 2 volumes) fall into dispute with the Zegris and were also the king Abu l -Hasan Ali in a secret hostility. And when the latter learned of the love affair between one of the Abencerrages and his sister Zoraida, he left them with the help of Zegris lure in the Alhambra, and which escaped murder here except for a few. Even today, a part of the Alhambra Hall of Abencerrages.

This more or less legendary story is the story Gonsalve de Cordova by Jean -Pierre Claris de Florian based on the Victor- Joseph Étienne de Jouy, the text of Luigi Cherubini's opera Les Abencerrages ( The field camp in Granada, 1813) edited, and the known Les aventures du dernier story of Abencerrages (1826 ) by Chateaubriand.