ABENCERRAGES, a family or faction that is said to have held a
prominent position in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in the 15th
century. The name appears to have been derived from the Yussuf
ben-Serragh, the head of the tribe in the time of Mahommed VII., who
did that sovereign good service in his struggles to retain the crown
of which he was three times deprived. Nothing is known of the family
with certainty; but the name is familiar from the interesting romance
of Gines Perez de Hita,
Guerras civiles de Granada, which
celebrates the feuds of the Abencerrages and the rival family of the
Zegris, 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 imitations of Perez de Hita's
work. The hall of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra takes its name
from being the reputed scene of the massacre of the family.
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
encyclopedia, which is out of copyright here in the U.S. It is in the
public domain and you may copy, download, print and distribute this work
as you see fit.
Every effort has been made to present this text accurately and
cleanly, but no guarantees are made against errors. Neither Melissa
Snell nor About may be held liable for any problems you experience with
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