Narváez obtains forgiveness for Abindarráez and Harifa

Narváez obtains forgiveness for Abindarráez and Jarifa through a sequence of acts that makes mercy practical as well as honorable: he writes to the King of Granada, wins the king’s command for Jarifa’s father to accept the marriage, and then frees Abindarráez without demanding ransom. The episode, told by Felismena at Felicia’s house, turns a capture on the frontier into a negotiation among a Christian commander, a Muslim couple, a king, and a father. Its resolution rests not on denying the lovers’ breach of family authority, but on making their marriage and mutual fidelity grounds for reconciliation.

The Petition and Its Stakes

When Abindarráez returns to Álora with Jarifa, he has fulfilled his promise to come back as Narváez’s prisoner. Jarifa has chosen to accompany him rather than remain at Coín, fearing her father’s response to a marriage contracted without his permission. Abindarráez asks Narváez to intervene: Jarifa’s father is with the King of Granada, and the lovers hope the king will forgive them. Their request places Narváez’s earlier generosity to his captive under a new test. He had allowed Abindarráez to leave temporarily; now he must decide whether to help the couple face the consequences of their secret marriage.

Narváez answers with action rather than sympathy alone. He promises to do what he can, then sends a squire with a letter to the king. The letter gives a compact account of the case: Abindarráez fell in love with Jarifa while she was in Cártama; after her father was transferred to Coín, the lovers secretly married; and Abindarráez was captured on the road while traveling to see his wife. Narváez acknowledges that the marriage took place without her father’s knowledge, but asks the king not to let the name of the Abencerrajes prejudice his judgment. He argues that Abindarráez and his father were innocent of the conspiracy that had brought the family to ruin, and asks the king to order Jarifa’s father to forgive the couple and receive Abindarráez as a son.

Royal Authority and a Father’s Consent

The king’s response gives Narváez’s plea political force. He welcomes the letter because it comes from Narváez, whom he esteems for his courage and character. He then tells Jarifa’s father, the governor of Coín, to go to Álora, forgive his children, and take them home. The command does not erase the father’s authority; instead, it directs that authority toward acceptance. The lovers’ marriage remains a decision made without his consent, but the king’s intervention makes forgiveness the appropriate response.

Jarifa’s father obeys. When the couple appear before him, embarrassed and asking pardon, he tells them not to dwell on what has passed. He says that the king has ordered him to forgive the marriage, and goes further: Jarifa has chosen a better husband than he could have chosen for her. That recognition changes the meaning of the couple’s secret act. What began as a source of anticipated punishment becomes a marriage acknowledged by the father and accommodated within the household.

The reconciliation also resolves the danger attached to the Abencerrajes name. The letter recalls that members of the family were executed after being accused of plotting against the king, an accusation the account presents as uncertain, and insists that Abindarráez and his father were not guilty. The king’s willingness to pardon the young couple therefore answers both a private plea and a family stigma. Narváez’s appeal joins the two: his account asks that the lovers be judged by their conduct, not condemned through association with an earlier political charge.

Release Without Ransom

After the father has accepted the couple, Narváez declares Abindarráez free to go wherever he wishes. He treats his role in the reconciliation as a greater reward than the right to collect a ransom, and gives the couple leave to depart from Álora. Narváez accompanies them to Coín, where their marriage is celebrated. The sequence completes the promise that had governed Abindarráez’s return: he came back as a prisoner, but the commander who held him makes his release part of the settlement.

Jarifa’s father later insists that the couple should still honor Narváez’s claim to a ransom, arguing that Narváez’s exceptional generosity makes him more, not less, deserving of acknowledgment. He gives them four thousand doblas zaenes to send to Álora. Abindarráez adds six finely caparisoned horses, with shields and lances whose fittings are of fine gold. Jarifa sends an affectionate letter and a fragrant cypress box containing fine linen. The gifts make gratitude visible, but Narváez refuses to turn them into personal profit: he keeps one horse, distributes the other horses and the arms among the hidalgos who accompanied him on the night patrol, and returns the money to the messenger. He tells Jarifa that he accepts the coins as her husband’s ransom, but gives them back to help with the wedding expenses; he values her friendship above worldly gain and welcomes her to his house as his own.

Honor Across Difference

The episode’s pardon depends on several kinds of obligation reinforcing one another. Abindarráez keeps his pledged word by returning to captivity; Narváez honors his promise to help and uses his standing with the king; Jarifa’s father submits to royal instruction and receives the marriage; and the couple recognize Narváez’s intervention through gifts that he redirects or declines. Mercy is therefore not a single impulsive gesture but a chain of reciprocal acts, each making the next possible.

The resolution also places religious and political difference beside shared codes of courage, loyalty, and liberality. Narváez is a Christian commander serving the King of Castile, while Abindarráez and Jarifa belong to the Muslim world of Granada. Yet Narváez’s judgment of his captive is shaped by Abindarráez’s bravery and conduct, and the king’s request does not prevent him from acting favorably toward the couple. Their different laws remain acknowledged, especially in the father’s authority and the marriage’s lack of prior permission, but the story gives honor and clemency the power to bridge that division. By ending with the father’s acceptance, Narváez’s refusal of profit, and the couple’s wedding celebrations, the episode makes reconciliation—not victory over an adversary—the measure of the commander’s achievement.