Saray (building)

In English, a saray (Arabic: السراي‎‎; Turkish: sarayı) (also seray), with the variant saraya (السرايا) (also 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 Arab parts but also including Cyprus. 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. Seray may also be spelt serail in English, via French influence, in which case the L is (in principle) silent. The term saray is Turkish, and comes from the Persian word (sarāy) meaning "palace".

The English word "saray" corresponds to the Arabic term, with its particular historic meaning. The English word "saray" does not correspond to "saray" in Persian; in such cases the corresponding English term is simply "palace". The same logic would generally be applied to Punjabi, for example Akbari Sarai 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.

The most famous seray is the Grand Serail (Arabic: السراي الكبير‎‎, Al-Sarāy al-Kabir) 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.

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