The Abencerrages: between history and legend

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11/11/2022

In the Alhambra, the royal palace of the Nasrid emirs – the Muslim rulers of Granada in the late Middle Ages – near the famous Court of the Lions, there is a hall known as the ‘Hall of the Abencerrages’ (Sala de los Abencerrajes). A fountain with dark stains can be seen there. According to tradition, these were left by the blood of the members of the famous lineage, executed on the orders of Sultan Abu al-Hassan Ali (1464-82). Who were these Abencerrages and what is their history? And how did they come to occupy a privileged position in the imagination of early French Romanticism?

CD-Book Luigi Cherubini. Les Abencérages ou L’Étendard de Grenade (2022). Translation: Charles Johnston.