Saray (building)


In English, a saray, with the variant saraya or seraya, is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ottoman Empire, such as the Arab provinces, Cyprus, etc. Seray may also be spelt serail in English, via French influence, in which case the L is silent.
The term saray is Turkish, and comes from the Persian word in Lahore, Punjab, would be more obviously described as a palace than as a saray.
A seraya should not be confused with a seraglio, though the origin of the words is probably the same.

Examples

The most famous seray is the Grand Serail in Lebanon, which is the headquarters of the Prime Minister. It is situated atop a hill in downtown Beirut a few blocks away from the Lebanese Parliament. The hill was the site of an Ottoman army base from the 1840s, which was built up, fortified, and expanded in the 1850s. At first it was known as al quishla, from the Turkish word kışla, meaning barracks.
Another example is the Red Seraya in Libya. It is in central Tripoli and houses a museum.
The Seray of Aleppo is not from the time of Ottoman rule, it is a French construction.
The new presidential palace of Turkey, completed in 2014, is popularly called Ak Saray.

Military units

Saraya is also used as a military unit title in the Arab world. In this case the Arabic is سرية, a different word from "saraya" as in a building. The etymology is also different from the building: The etymology of سرية is from Arabic and communicates the idea of a "private group". However the plural is سرايا indistinguishable from the term "saraya" which is a variant of saray.
The normal translation for سرية is "company" but in the case of the "Lebanese Resistance Saraya", the term is often arbitrarily translated as "brigades".
Another example is the Syrian "Defense Saraya".

In literature

In an epic poem titled "Slaughter us all and make our blood a river. Cyprus poetry and history" the events are taking place at the Sarayi in Nicosia, Cyprus in July 1821.