As soon as they felt that they had completely
mastered their tool, the politic king and queen
suffered him to return to Granada, where his father,
Abu-l-Hasan, once more held the fortress of the
Alhambra. Favoured by his old supporters in the
Albaycin quarter of the city, Boabdil managed to
effect an entrance, and to seize the citadel or keep
called Alcazaba, whence he carried on a guerilla
warfare with his father in the opposite fort. The
quarrel was further embittered by the rivalry between
the wives of Abu-l-Hasan. Ayesha, the mother of
Boabdil, was intensely jealous of a Christian lady,
Zoraya, whom Abu-l-Hasan loved far beyond his
other wives; and the chief courtiers took up the cause
of either queen. Thus arose the celebrated antagon-
ism between the Zegris, a Berber tribe from Aragon,
who supported Ayesha, and the Abencerrages, or
Beny-Serrāj, an old Cordovan family, which ended
in the celebrated massacre of the Abencerrages in
the Palace of Alhambra, though whether Boabdil
was the author of this butchery is still matter of
doubt. Supported by the Zegris, Boabdil for some
time held his ground in the citadel. Old Abu-l-Hasan
was too strong for him, however, and the son was
soon compelled to take refuge at Almeria. Hence-
forward there were always two kings of Granada:
Boabdil, on the one hand, always unlucky, whether
in policy or battle, and despised by good Moors
as the vassal of the common enemy; on the other,
Abu-l-Hasan, or rather his brother Ez-Zaghal,
"the Valiant," for the old king did not long survive
the misfortunes which his son's rebellion had brought

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