Kahina

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Al-Kahina
Queen of the Aurès
Dihya memorial in Khenchela, Algeria
Queen of the Aurès
Reignc. 668 - 703?
PredecessorIaudas
Leader of the Berber
In officec. 680s - 703?
PredecessorKusaila
BornEarly seventh century
Died703? (in battle)
Bir al-Kahina, Aurès[1]
FatherTabat[2]

Al-Kahina (

Battle of Meskiana after which she became the uncontested ruler of the whole Maghreb,[3][4][5][6] before being decisively defeated at the Battle of Tabarka. She was born in the early 7th century AD and died around the end of the 7th century in modern-day Algeria. She is considered one of the most famous figures in the history of the Berber resistance to the Arab conquest in the 7th century.[1]

Name

Her personal name is one of these variations: Daya, Dehiya, Dihya, Dahya or Damya.

Muslim opponents because of her alleged ability to foresee the future.[1]

Origins and religion

Al-Kahina led the

Aures.[9]

Various sources suggest that she was of Jewish religion or that her tribe were Judaized Berbers.[10] According to 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.[1]

The idea that the Jarawa were Judaized comes from the medieval historian

Judaizing, those connected with the Berbers and Sudanese in Africa are the least authenticated. Whatever has been written on them is extremely questionable."[11]

Over four centuries after her death, Tunisian

Lūwāta tribe.[12] When the later historian Ibn Khaldun came to write his account, he placed her with the Jarawa
tribe.

According to various Muslim sources, al-Kāhina was the daughter of

genealogies, which were generally concocted for political reasons during the 9th century.[13]

Ibn Khaldun records many legends about Al-Kahina. A number of them refer to her long

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?
]

Conflicts and legends

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

Oum el-Bouaghi at the Battle of Meskiana (or "battle of camels") in Algeria.[15]

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.[16]

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.[

which?] to promote their own nationalism. For the Arabs,[who?] they told the story in a perspective that made the Kahina seem like a sorcerer, all in an attempt to discredit her.[citation needed] The story of the Kahina was told to paint colonialism in a positive light.[citation needed] The story was told with a message saying that it represented the freeing of Berbers from the Arabs.[17]

Another, lesser known account[

which?] 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[clarification needed] 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?
]

Defeat and death

Caliph in Damascus as proof of her death.[19]

According to many historians[

Ibn al-Athīr
says they died with their mother.

Legacy

Al-Kahina was adopted as a symbol by women[

which?], and was used as a symbol against foreign occupation, and later as a symbol against male hegemony. Indeed, already during the period of 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.[21][22]

Also, the French, in the early 20th century, anxious to Frenchify Algeria by Romanising its past, drew parallels between themselves and the Romans. The 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 Phoenician 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.[22]

In the present day, the image of Kahina is constantly used by 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 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.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1306
    .
  2. ^ a b According to some, this name is an Arabicized form of the Christian name Matthias or Matthew. See Talbi (1971) for more discussion.
  3. ^ The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 2: From Mohammed to the Marranos Leon Poliakov University of Pennsylvania Press
  4. ^ Remarkable Jewish Women: Rebels, Rabbis, and Other Women from Biblical Times to the Present Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry Jewish Publication Society,
  5. ^ History of North Africa: Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco: From the Arab Conquest to 1830 Charles André Julien Praeger
  6. ^ The Jews of North Africa: From Dido to De Gaulle Sarah Taieb-Carlen University Press of America,
  7. ^ See discussion of these supposed names by Talbi (1971).
  8. ISBN 978-0-292-77878-8
    .
  9. ISBN 978-0-7100-6614-5
    .
  10. ^ See Hirschberg (1963) and Talbi (1971).
  11. ^ Hirschberg (1963) p. 339.
  12. ^ at-Tijani, Arabic text p. 57: al-kāhinat al-ma'arūfat bi-kāhinat lūwātat, p. 118 of the translation
  13. ^ Talbi (1971) and Modéran (2005) discuss the various sources.
  14. ^ Talbi (1971) suggests that based on the topography reported by al-Mālikī, the actual battlefield was the Wadi Nīnī.
  15. ^ Philippe Sénac; Patrice Cressier (2012). Armand Colin (ed.). Histoire du Maghreb médiéval: VIIe-XIe siècle (in French). p. 111.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ a b Becker, Cynthia, "The Kahina: The Female Face of Berber History". Mizan Project. October 26, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2018.
  18. Setif and Tobna
    but this is not certain.
  19. ISBN 978-1-4408-6825-2
    .
  20. ^ Description of 100 Francs 1940, Algeria
  21. ^ Z.Daoud, Feminisme et politique au Magreb,(Paris:Maisonneuve et Larose, 1993), p. 133-34, and p. 357
  22. ^
    JSTOR 1595873
    .

Bibliography
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