Harifa accompanies Abindarráez back to Álora

Jarifa accompanies Abindarráez back to Álora after their secret marriage, choosing to share his promised captivity rather than remain behind. In the episode Felismena recounts at Felicia’s house, their return tests the lovers’ fidelity against the pledge Abindarráez made to Rodrigo de Narváez; it also gives Narváez the means to seek their pardon and bring their story to a conciliatory close.

Causes and Background

Narváez, the governor of Álora and Antequera, had captured Abindarráez after a night encounter on the road. Wounded in the skirmish, Abindarráez explained that his distress came not simply from being taken prisoner: he was on his way from Cártama to Coín to meet Jarifa, whom he loved and expected to marry. Moved by the urgency of that intended meeting, Narváez allowed him to go free for two days on the condition that he return to Álora as promised.

At Coín, Jarifa received Abindarráez in secret. She told him she had summoned him so that he could become her husband and share her father’s household and property, even though she expected her father to object to the match. Their joy was interrupted when Abindarráez revealed that he had pledged to return to Narváez’s custody. He feared that staying with Jarifa would break his word; she answered the dilemma by deciding not to leave him to fulfill it alone. Since she considered herself captive to him through love, she would go with him and accept captivity beside him.

The Secret Return

Before daybreak, the newly married couple set out for Álora with the provisions needed for the journey. Jarifa covered her face as they traveled in order not to be recognized. The short journey brought them to the fortress, where guards who knew what had happened opened the gate. Their arrival converts a private decision into a public act: Abindarráez does not evade the bargain that secured his release, and Jarifa makes clear that their marriage binds her to the same course.

At the entrance, Abindarráez took Jarifa by the hand and presented them to Narváez as two prisoners instead of one. He asked Narváez to receive them both and entrust himself and Jarifa’s honor to the governor’s keeping. Narváez welcomed them courteously, observing that he could not tell which of the two had overcome the other, and invited them to treat his house as their own. The exchange recasts captivity: the couple arrive under the authority of their captor, yet their voluntary return and Jarifa’s choice give the surrender the character of mutual fidelity rather than defeat alone.

Care and the Appeal for Pardon

The journey aggravated Abindarráez’s wounds from the skirmish. Narváez arranged for a surgeon at the castle to examine and treat him; the wounds were judged not dangerous, and Abindarráez recovered after four days of attentive care. Jarifa’s concern was evident, though she kept a composed expression so as not to distress him. Her care follows directly from the choice she made at Coín: she accompanies him into captivity and remains beside him through its immediate physical consequences.

Once recovered, Abindarráez asked Narváez to help settle their situation. Jarifa had feared her father’s anger and had not stayed at Coín, while her father was away in Granada. Narváez wrote to the king of Granada, explaining the lovers’ marriage, Abindarráez’s capture, his temporary release, and the couple’s return. He asked the king not to punish them for marrying without the father’s permission, and offered to waive Abindarráez’s ransom if the father would forgive Jarifa and receive Abindarráez as a son. The lovers’ return thus gives Narváez grounds to turn private clemency into a formal appeal on their behalf.

Outcome and Narrative Significance

The king accepted Narváez’s appeal and ordered Jarifa’s father to forgive the couple and bring them home. After the father arrived at Álora, he took them back to Coín, where their marriage was celebrated. He later sent Narváez four thousand doblas as ransom, together with six horses and arms; Jarifa also sent him a chest of fine linen. Narváez returned the money, accepting it as ransom for Abindarráez while treating it as a contribution toward the wedding expenses, and welcomed Jarifa as though his house were hers.

The episode’s resolution depends on reciprocal acts rather than escape or conquest. Narváez’s grant of temporary freedom makes the lovers’ reunion possible; Abindarráez honors his pledge by returning; Jarifa makes that return a shared undertaking; and Narváez answers their integrity with care and advocacy. Felismena tells the episode as a story within the gathering at Felicia’s house, where it becomes a romance of love and honor that crosses the boundary between Christian captor and Muslim prisoners without erasing their political and religious difference.