Abindarráez

Abindarráez, the young Abencerraje at the center of Felismena’s embedded tale, meets captivity with the same fidelity that governs his love for Jarifa. Captured by Rodrigo de Narváez while riding to see her, he wins temporary freedom through a promise to return; he keeps it, bringing Jarifa back with him. His story makes military prowess only one measure of honor: his word, Jarifa’s loyalty, and Narváez’s generosity ultimately redirect the conflict toward reconciliation.

Identity and Background

Abindarráez identifies himself as a young man of the Abencerrajes of Granada, distinguishing himself from an uncle who shares his family name. The family had once been celebrated for courage in war, wisdom in government, generosity, courtesy, and service to women. Its fortunes collapsed after two Abencerrajes suffered a royal injury and were accused, with ten other kinsmen, of conspiring to kill the king and divide the kingdom. Whether the conspiracy was true or false, it was discovered before it could be carried out. The accused were executed, their houses demolished, their property confiscated, and the family banished from Granada. Only Abindarráez’s father and uncle survived, having been found uninvolved; the decree required that their sons be raised outside the city.

That decree shaped Abindarráez’s upbringing. Born in Granada, he was sent to Cártama and entrusted to its governor, an old friend of his father. There he grew up alongside the governor’s daughter, Jarifa. Because they were treated as children of one household and everyone called them siblings, they initially believed themselves to be brother and sister. Their shared childhood provided the closeness from which their love developed, but the family arrangement also made their feelings difficult to name.

Love and Separation

As they grew older, Abindarráez began to feel that his affection for Jarifa exceeded kinship. In the garden, while Jarifa was arranging her hair, he questioned whether they were truly siblings and confessed that her beauty, rather than any supposed family bond, compelled his love. Jarifa could offer no proof of their siblinghood beyond the way they had been raised and addressed. Their exchange exposed a possibility neither had previously acknowledged: their intimacy might be permitted, rather than forbidden, if they were not related.

Their love became a commitment to marry. Jarifa told him that, once she understood his feelings, she was bound to him in love and would accept the marriage bond. Abindarráez received her words as the fulfillment of his hope. But their life together was interrupted when the king ordered Jarifa’s father to leave Cártama for Coín, a frontier town, and to leave Abindarráez behind in the fortress under a new governor. The separation turned their private attachment into a test of memory and fidelity. Later, with her father away in Granada, Jarifa sent a trusted maid to summon Abindarráez to Coín, where she could meet him in secret.

Capture and the Promise to Return

Abindarráez set out at night, dressed for the meeting and eager to reach Jarifa. Near Álora, Rodrigo de Narváez and his men heard him singing and came out of hiding. Abindarráez fought all five attackers, bringing three down before losing his lance and being wounded in the thigh. He recovered a fallen lance during the skirmish and continued to resist until Narváez arrived and engaged him. Though captured, he impressed the Christian commander with his courage and bearing.

Narváez noticed that Abindarráez’s sadness seemed greater than his wounds or defeat could explain. Asked to account for it, the prisoner disclosed his identity and his family’s history, then told Narváez about Jarifa and the meeting that captivity had put at risk. He stressed that his distress came not simply from imprisonment but from the loss of the chance to see and marry her. Moved by the account, Narváez offered him freedom to complete his journey on condition that he return to Álora and surrender himself again by the appointed third day. Abindarráez accepted the condition as a binding promise. Narváez supplied a horse because Abindarráez’s own had been injured, and the young man hurried on to Coín.

Jarifa, Honor, and Reconciliation

At Coín, Abindarráez entered by a concealed gate and was led to Jarifa. She explained that she had summoned him to make him her prisoner in love and to receive him as her husband. Their reunion brought joy, but Abindarráez soon remembered his pledge to Narváez. When he told Jarifa what had happened, she offered to use her father’s wealth to pay his ransom. He refused: now that he was her husband, he considered himself more—not less—obliged to keep his word. Jarifa would not let him return alone. Before dawn, she set out with him, and together they arrived at Álora, where Abindarráez presented Narváez with two prisoners instead of one.

Narváez received them courteously and treated Abindarráez’s wounds. After four days, when the young man had recovered, he explained that Jarifa had remained in Coín because she feared her father’s reaction to a marriage made without his consent. He asked Narváez to seek the king of Granada’s pardon and the father’s forgiveness. Narváez wrote to the king, recounting the capture, the temporary release, the marriage, and Abindarráez’s voluntary return. He also argued that Abindarráez and his father had been innocent of the old conspiracy. The king ordered Jarifa’s father to forgive the couple and bring them home. After their return to Coín, the father welcomed them and proposed a payment of four thousand doblas as ransom, along with horses and arms for Narváez and his companions. Narváez returned the money to Jarifa to help with the wedding expenses, while accepting the offered friendship and distributing the other gifts among his men.

Narrative Role and Significance

Abindarráez’s account is told by Felismena at Felicia’s house, where she has been asked to relate a story from Vandalia. The embedded tale places a Muslim lover and a Christian captor in conflict without making either man’s honor depend on denying the other’s. Abindarráez fights fiercely, speaks openly about his grief, and keeps his promise even when doing so means returning to captivity. Narváez, in turn, recognizes his courage, grants him freedom, and uses his standing with the king to secure the couple’s pardon. The ending joins personal loyalty to public generosity: Abindarráez returns as promised, Jarifa shares his risk, and the former captor refuses to treat their reconciliation as a transaction.