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{{Short description|Queen of the Aurès from c. 668 to 703}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Al-Kahina
| title        = [[Kingdom of the Aurès|Queen of the Aurès]]
| image        = Statue of Dyhia in Khenchela (Algeria).jpg
| caption      = Dihya memorial in [[Khenchela]], [[Algeria]]
|succession=[[Kingdom of the Aurès|Queen of the Aurès]]
| reign        = c. 668 - 703?
| predecessor = [[Iaudas]]
| coronation   = 
| succession1=[[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Leader of the Berber]]
| reign1 = c. 680s - 703?
| reign-type1 = In office
| predecessor1 = [[Kusaila]]
| successor1   =
| full name    = 
| birth_date   = Early seventh century
| birth_place  = 
| death_date   = 703? (in battle)
| death_place  = Bir al-Kahina, [[Aurès]]<ref name="EB1306" />
| burial_date  = 
| burial_place =  
| spouse       = 
| issue        = 
| royal house  = 
| dynasty      = 
| father       = [[Tabat]]<ref name="father"/>
| mother       = 
| religion     = 
}}
'''Al-Kahina''' ({{langx|ar|الكاهنة|al-Kāhina|the priestess }}), also known as '''Dihya''', was a [[Berbers|Berber]] warrior-queen of the [[Kingdom of the Aurès|Aurès]]<ref name="EB1306"/> and a religious and military leader who lived during the seventh century AD.

Her legacy has been retold through the oral tradition since her lifetime. There are various written accounts of her from precolonial and postcolonial perspectives. Generally, she is known to have united various [[Berber tribes]] under her leadership to fight against the ongoing [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]], leading the indigenous North African defense of the region then known as [[Numidia]]. She fought in multiple battles, notably defeating [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad forces]] in the [[Battle of Meskiana]]. Afterwards, she became the uncontested ruler of the whole [[Maghreb]] region,<ref name=Leon>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3kINwT_56U8C&pg=PA14 The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 2: From Mohammed to the Marranos]
Leon Poliakov
University of Pennsylvania Press</ref><ref name=Taitz>[https://books.google.com/books?id=bpcvAQAAIAAJ&q=kahina+maghreb Remarkable Jewish Women: Rebels, Rabbis, and Other Women from Biblical Times to the Present]
Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry
Jewish Publication Society,</ref><ref name=Julien>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xtEZAAAAMAAJ&q=maghrib+kahina History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco: From the Arab Conquest to 1830]
Charles André Julien
Praeger</ref><ref name=Sarah>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9txi3xuuENcC&pg=PA23 The Jews of North Africa: From Dido to De Gaulle]
Sarah Taieb-Carlen
University Press of America,</ref> and remained so until being decisively defeated and killed at the [[Battle of Tabarka]].

There are various accounts of the circumstances surrounding her death, but she is thought to have died in modern-day [[Algeria]] towards the end of the seventh century. She is considered one of the most famous figures of her era in the history of the Berber resistance to the Arab conquest.<ref name="EB1306" />

==Name==
Her personal name is one of these variations: Daya, Dehiya, Dihya, Dahya or Damya.<ref>See discussion of these supposed names by Talbi (1971).</ref> Her title was cited by Arabic-language sources as ''al-Kāhina'' (the [[priest]]ess [[divination|soothsayer]]) ({{langx|ar|الكاهنة||}}). This was the nickname given to by her [[Muslim]] opponents because of her alleged ability to foresee the future.<ref name="EB1306" />

== Origins and religion ==
Al-Kahina led the [[Jarawa (Berber tribe)|Jarāwa]] [[Zenata]] tribe. She may have been [[Jews|Jewish]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a1jfzkJTAZgC|title=North Africa: A History from Antiquity to the Present|last=Naylor|first=Phillip C.|year=2009|publisher=University of Texas Press|page=65|language=en|isbn=978-0-292-77878-8}}</ref> For five years she ruled a free Berber state from the [[Aurès Mountains]] to the oasis of [[Ghadames]] (695–700 AD). But the Arabs, commanded by [[Musa bin Nusayr]], returned with a strong army and defeated her. She fought at the [[El Djem]] Roman amphitheater but was killed in combat near a well that still bears her name, [[Bir al Kahina]] in [[Aures, Algeria|Aures]].<ref name="JulienTourneau1970">{{cite book|author1=Charles André Julien|author2=Roger Le Tourneau|title=Histoire de L'Afrique du Nord|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tYZyAAAAMAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Praeger|page=13|isbn=978-0-7100-6614-5}}</ref>

Various sources suggest that she was of [[Berber Jews|Jewish]] religion or that her [[tribe]] were [[Berber Jews|Judaized]] [[Berbers]].<ref>See Hirschberg (1963) and Talbi (1971).</ref> According to [[Abu Bakr al-Maliki|al-Mālikī]], she was accompanied in her travels by an "idol". Both [[Mohamed Talbi]] and [[Gabriel Camps]] interpreted this idol as a Christian icon, either of Christ, the Virgin, or a saint protecting the queen. [[M'hamed Hassine Fantar]] held that this icon represented a separate Berber deity, suggesting she followed [[traditional Berber religion]]. However, Al-Kahina being a Christian remains the most likely hypothesis.<ref name="EB1306">{{Cite encyclopedia|year=2005|title=Kahena|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopédie berbère]]|publisher=Edisud|url=https://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/1306|last=Modéran|first=Yves|issue=27 |pages=4102–4111 |author-link=Yves Modéran|doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1306|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The idea that the Jarawa were Judaized comes from the medieval historian [[Ibn Khaldun]], who named them among seven Berber tribes. Hirschberg and Talbi note that Ibn Khaldun seems to have been referring to a time before the advent of the late [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[Byzantine]] empires, and a little later in the same paragraph seems to say that by [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times "the tribes" had become [[Christianized]]. As early as 1963, the Israeli historian H.Z. Hirschberg, in retranslating the text of Ibn Khaldun and rigorously repeating the whole document, questioned this interpretation, and in general the existence of large Jewish Berber tribes in the end of Antiquity.<ref name="EB1306" /> In the words of [[H.Z. Hirschberg]], "of all the known movements of conversion to [[Judaism]] and incidents of [[Judaizing]], those connected with the [[Berbers]] and [[Sudan]]ese in [[Africa]] are the least authenticated. Whatever has been written on them is extremely questionable."<ref>Hirschberg (1963) p. 339.</ref>

Over four centuries after her death, Tunisian [[hagiographer]] [[Abu Bakr al-Maliki|al-Mālikī]] seems to have been among the first to state she resided in the [[Aurès Mountains]]. Seven centuries after her death, the pilgrim [[Abdallah al-Tijani|at-Tijani]] was told she belonged to the [[Laguatan|Lūwāta]] tribe.<ref>at-Tijani, Arabic text p. 57: ''al-kāhinat al-ma'arūfat bi-kāhinat lūwātat'', p. 118 of the translation</ref> When the later historian Ibn Khaldun came to write his account, he placed her with the [[Jarawa (Berber tribe)|Jarawa]] tribe.

According to various Muslim sources, al-Kāhina was the daughter of [[Tabat]], or some say [[Mātiya]].<ref name="father">According to some, this name is an Arabicized form of the Christian name Matthias or Matthew. See Talbi (1971) for more discussion.</ref> These sources depend on [[tribal]] [[genealogies]], which were generally concocted for political reasons during the 9th century.<ref>Talbi (1971) and Modéran (2005) discuss the various sources.</ref>

Ibn Khaldun records many legends about Al-Kahina. A number of them refer to her long [[hair]] or great size, both legendary characteristics of [[Magician (paranormal)|sorcerers]]. She is also supposed to have had the gift of [[prophecy]] and she had three sons, which is characteristic of witches in legends. Even the fact that two were her own and one was adopted (an [[Arab]] officer she had captured) was an alleged trait of sorcerers in tales. Another [[legend]] claims that in her youth, she had supposedly freed her people from a [[tyrant]] by agreeing to marry him and then murdering him on their [[wedding]] night. Virtually nothing else of her personal life is known.{{According to whom|date=May 2016}}

== Conflicts and legends ==
{{stack|[[File:El Djem Amphitheater aerial view.jpg|thumb|[[Amphitheatre of El Jem|El Djem Amphitheater]] aerial view. The amphitheater was converted into a fortress, and in 699 CE served as a refuge for El Kahina during her fight against the Arab invaders. After the battle, the town was abandoned, and the site was reoccupied only during the French colonial period.]]}}
Al-Kahina succeeded [[Kusaila]] as the war leader of the [[Berber people|Berber]] tribes in the 680s and opposed the encroaching Arab Islamic armies of the [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad dynasty]]. [[Hasan ibn al-Nu'man]] marched from [[Egypt]] and captured the major [[Byzantine]] city of [[Carthage]] and other cities (see [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb|Muslim conquest of North Africa]]). Searching for another enemy to defeat, he was told that the most powerful monarch in North Africa was "the Queen of the Berbers" (Arabic: ''malikat al-barbar'') Al-Kahina, and accordingly marched into [[Numidia]]. In 698, the armies met near [[Meskiana]]<ref>Talbi (1971) suggests that based on the topography reported by al-Mālikī, the actual battlefield was the Wadi Nīnī.</ref> in the present-day province of [[Oum el-Bouaghi Province|Oum el-Bouaghi]] at the [[Battle of Meskiana]] (or "battle of camels") in [[Algeria]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Philippe Sénac|author2=Patrice Cressier|title=Histoire du Maghreb médiéval: VIIe-XIe siècle|editor=Armand Colin|year=2012|page=111|language=fr}}</ref>

Al-Kahina defeated Hasan so soundly that he fled [[Ifriqiya]] and holed up in [[Cyrenaica]] (Libya) for four or five years. Realizing that the enemy was too powerful and bound to return, she was said to have embarked on a [[scorched earth]] campaign, which had little impact on the mountain and desert tribes, but lost her the crucial support of the sedentary oasis-dwellers. Instead of discouraging the Arab armies, her desperate decision hastened defeat.<ref>However, even if true, the Arab accounts are considered to be greatly exaggerated. See Talbi (1971) and Modéran (2005). One thing that is certain is that Dihyā loved ornithology.</ref>

The story of the Kahina is told by a variety of cultures, and each story often offers a different, or even contradictory, perspective. For example, the story is used to promote feminist beliefs.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} Additionally, it is even told by Arabs{{which|date=August 2022}} to promote their own nationalism. For the Arabs,{{who|date=August 2022}} they told the story in a perspective that made the Kahina seem like a sorcerer, all in an attempt to discredit her.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} The story of the Kahina was told to paint colonialism in a positive light.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} The story was told with a message saying that it represented the freeing of Berbers from the Arabs.<ref name=Becker>Becker, Cynthia, [http://www.mizanproject.org/the-kahina-the-female-face-of-berber-history/#_ftn2 "The Kahina: The Female Face of Berber History"]. Mizan Project. October 26, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2018.</ref>

Another, lesser known account{{which|date=August 2022}} of Al-Kahina claimed that she had an interest in early studies of desert birds. While this view may or may not be plausible, some evidence{{clarify|date=August 2022}} has been recovered at the site of her death place, modern-day Algeria. Several fragments of early parchment with a painting of a bird on them were found, although there's no way to conclude the fragments were hers. However, it is possible that she began her interest while in Libya, as the painting was of a Libyan bird species.{{According to whom|date=May 2016}}

== Defeat and death ==

[[Hasan ibn al-Nu'man|Hasan]] eventually returned and, aided by communications with the captured officer [[Khalid bin Yazid al-Qaysi]] adopted by Al-Kahina, defeated her at the [[Battle of Tabarka]] (a locality in present-day [[Tunisia]] near the [[Algeria]]n border)<ref name="EB1306" /> about which there is some uncertainty.<ref>Talbi (1971) suggests it was between [[Setif]] and [[Tobna]] but this is not certain.</ref> According to some accounts{{which|date=August 2022}}, Al-Kahina died fighting the invaders, sword in hand. Other accounts{{which|date=August 2022}} say she committed suicide by swallowing poison rather than be taken by the enemy. This final act occurred in the 690s or 700s, with 703 CE given as the most likely year.<ref name="EB1306" /> In that year, she was, according to [[Ibn Khaldun]], 127 years old. This is evidently yet another of the many myths which surround her. In either case she was [[beheaded]], and her head was sent back to the Umayyad [[Caliph]] in [[Damascus]] as proof of her death.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3FYEAAAQBAJ&dq=kahina+beheaded&pg=PA300 | title=Women Who Changed the World: Their Lives, Challenges, and Accomplishments through History &#91;4 volumes&#93; | isbn=978-1-4408-6825-2 | last1=Goucher | first1=Candice | date=24 January 2022 }}</ref>

According to many historians{{Who|date=June 2018}}, [[Bagay]] and [[Khenchla]] converted,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://notescollector.eu/pages/en/notes.php?noteId=1284 |title=Description of 100 Francs 1940, Algeria |access-date=2020-05-28 |archive-date=2023-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607082558/https://notescollector.eu/pages/en/notes.php?noteId=1284 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and led the Berber army to [[Iberia]]. However, the historian [[Ali ibn al-Athir|Ibn al-Athīr]] says they died with their mother.

== Legacy ==
Al-Kahina was adopted as a symbol by North African women, and was used as a symbol against foreign occupation, and later as a symbol against male hegemony. Indeed, already during the period of [[French conquest of Algeria|French colonisation of Algeria]], Kahina was a model for the militant women who fought the French. In the Kabyle insurrection of 1851 and 1857, women such as [[Lalla Fatma N'Soumer]] and Lalla Khadija Bent Belkacem, who were known as chief warriors took Kahina as a model.<ref>Z.Daoud, Feminisme et politique au Magreb,(Paris:Maisonneuve et Larose, 1993), p. 133-34, and p. 357</ref><ref name="hannoum">{{cite journal |last1=Hannoum |first1=Abdelmajid |title=Historiography, Mythology and Memory in Modern North Africa: The Story of the Kahina |journal=Studia Islamica |date=1997 |issue=85 |pages=85–130 |doi=10.2307/1595873 |jstor=1595873 }}</ref>

Anthropologist Abdelmajid Hannoum wrote "though the story of the Kahina may vary from one informant to another, the pattern is the same: the Kahina is the Berber heroine who fought the Arabs for independence."<ref name="i549">{{cite book |last=Hannoum |first=Abdelmajid |title=Colonial Histories, Postcolonial Memories |date=2001-09-19 |publisher=Greenwood |isbn=0-325-00253-3 |publication-place=Portsmouth, NH |page=140}}</ref> Feminist scholar [[Fatima Sadiqi]] has stated that "Kahina’s female leadership did not rely on institutionalized authority, but on recognized personal charismatic power".<ref name="f117">{{cite book |last=Sadiqi |first=Fatima |title=Moroccan Feminist Discourses |date=2014 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-349-48341-9 |publication-place=New York |pages=59–61 |doi=10.1057/9781137455093}}</ref>

Also, the French, in the early 20th century, anxious to [[French Algeria|Frenchify Algeria]] by Romanising its past, drew parallels between themselves and the Romans. The [[Algerian nationalism|Algerian nationalists]], seeking to tie Algeria to the East instead, draw the same parallels, but for them both Rome and France were colonial powers, responsible for the decline of [[Phoenicia]]n civilisation in the past, and Arabic civilisation in the present. Both ideologies used Kahina's mythology as a ''founding myth''. On one side, she was the one who fought the Arabs and Islam to keep Algeria Christian, on the other, she was the one who fought all invaders (Byzantines or Arabs) to create an independent state.<ref name="hannoum"/>

In the present day, the image of Kahina is constantly used by [[Berberism|Berber]] activists to showcase how they, as a people, are strong and will not be conquered or diminished by other communities. Her face is often seen in graffiti and sculptures around Algeria to showcase their support for the progressive ideals she represents. While her true appearance is still unknown, artists have depicted her with certain aspects that reinforce the progressive movement she is known to represent. However, not all governments accept the ideals behind Kahina. One statue of Kahina in [[Baghai]] was condemned by the government due to [[Islam and blasphemy|blasphemy]]. The president of the Defense of the Arab Language, [[Othman Saadi]], said that Kahina represented the resistance to [[Islam]], and thus, should be condemned.<ref name=Becker />

==See also==
{{Portal|History|Feminism}}
* [[Umayyad conquest of North Africa]]
* [[Kingdom of the Aurès]]
* [[Kusaila]]
* [[Colonialism]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* [[Ibn Khaldun]], ''Kitāb al-Ibar''. Usually cited as: ''Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale'', a French trans. by William McGuckin de Slane, Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1978. This 19th-century translation should now be regarded as obsolete. There is a more accurate modern French translation by Abdesselam Cheddadi, ''Peuples et Nations du Monde: extraits des Ibar'', Sindbad, Paris, 1986 & 1995. Hirschberg (1963) gives an English translation of the section where [[Ibn Khaldun]] discusses the supposed Judaized Jarāwa.
* Hannoum, Abdelmajid. (2001). ''Post-Colonial Memories: The Legend of the Dihyā, a North African Heroine'' (''Studies in [[African literature|African Literature]]''). {{ISBN|0-325-00253-3}}. This is a study of the legend of the Dihyā in the 19th century and later. The first chapter is a detailed critique of how the legend of the Dihyā emerged after several transformations from the 9th century to the 14th.
* {{Cite journal|last=Hirschberg|first=H.Z.|date=November 1963|title=The Problem of the Judaized Berbers|journal=The Journal of African History|language=en|volume=4|issue=3|pages=313–339|doi=10.1017/S0021853700004278|s2cid=162261998 |issn=1469-5138}}
* {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcxtAAAAMAAJ|title=A History of the Jews in North Africa|last=Hirschberg|first=H.Z.|publisher=Brill|year=1974|isbn=978-90-04-03820-2|edition=2nd ed., Eng. trans.|volume=1 From Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century|language=en}}
* al-Mālikī, ''Riyād an-Nufūs''. Partial French trans. (including the story of the Dihyā) by H.R. Idris, 'Le récit d'al-Mālikī sur la Conquête de l'Ifrīqiya', ''Revue des Etudes Islamiques'' 37 (1969) 117–149. The accuracy of this translation has been criticised by Talbi (1971) and others.
* {{Cite encyclopedia|year=2005|title=Kahena|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopédie berbère]]|publisher=Edisud|chapter-url=https://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/1306|last=Modéran|first=Yves|author-link=Yves Modéran|location=Aix-en-Provence|volume=27 {{!}} Kairouan – Kifan Bel-Ghomari|pages=4102–4111|isbn=978-2-7449-0538-4|chapter=Kahena. (Al-Kâhina)|issue=27|doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1306|doi-access=free}} The most recent critical study of the historical sources.
* Talbi, Mohammed. (1971). ''Un nouveau fragment de l'histoire de l'Occident musulman (62–196/682–812) : l'épopée d'al Kahina.'' (''Cahiers de Tunisie'' vol. 19 pp.&nbsp;19–52). An important historiographical study.
* at-Tijānī, ''Rihlat''. Arabic text ed. by H.H. Abdulwahhab, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, 1994. French trans. by A. Rousseau in ''Journal Asiatique'', section containing the story of the Dihyā is in n.s. 4, vol. 20 (1852) 57–208.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:7th-century births]]
[[Category:703 deaths]]
[[Category:7th-century Berber people]]
[[Category:7th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:7th-century queens regnant]]
[[Category:Women warriors]]
[[Category:African women in war]]
[[Category:Berber Christians]]
[[Category:Christianity in Algeria]]
[[Category:Medieval Algerian people]]
[[Category:Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]]
[[Category:Place of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Place of death unknown]]
[[Category:Queens regnant in Africa]]
[[Category:Women in medieval warfare]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Zenata]]
[[Category:Warlords]]