Name | Dihya |
---|---|
Title | al-Kāhina |
Caption | Dihya memorial in Khenchela, Algeria |
Reign | Early th Century |
Native lang1 | tačawit |
Burial place | Khenchela, (present day Algeria) |
al-Kāhina (Classical Arabic for "female seer"; modern Maghreb Arabic: L-Kahna, Berber: Dihya or Kahya, Romanized name: Kahina) was a 7th century female Berber religious and military leader, who led indigenous resistance to Arab expansion in Northwest Africa, the region then known as Numidia, known as the Maghreb today. She was born in the early 7th century and died around the end of the 7th century probably in modern day Algeria.
Over four centuries after her death, Tunisian hagiographer al-Mālikī seems to have been among the first to state she resided in the Aurès Mountains. Just on seven centuries after her death, the pilgrim at-Tijani was told she belonged to the Lūwāta tribe. When the later historian Ibn Khaldun came to write his account, he placed her with the Jrāwa tribe.
According to various sources, al-Kāhinat was the daughter of Tabat, or some say Mātiya. These sources depend on tribal genealogies, which were generally concocted for political reasons during the 9th century.
Accounts from the nineteenth century on claim she was a Jew or that her tribe were Judaized Berbers, though scholars dispute this. According to al-Mālikī she was said to have been accompanied in her travels by what the Arabs called an "idol", possibly an icon of the Virgin or one of the Christian saints, but certainly not something associated with Jewish religious customs.
The idea that the Jrāwa were Judaized comes from the medieval historian Ibn Khaldun, who named them among a number of such tribes. Hirschberg and Talbi note that Ibn Khaldun seems to have been referring to a time before the advent of the late Roman and Byzantine empires, and a little later in the same paragraph seems to say that by Roman times "the tribes" (presumably those he had listed before) had become Christianized. 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 Sudanese in Africa are the least authenticated. Whatever has been written on them is extremely questionable." Hirschberg further points out that in the oral legends of Algerian Jews, "Kahya" was depicted as an ogre and persecutor of Jews.
al-Kāhinat may have been of mixed descent: Berber and Byzantine Christian, since one of her sons is described as a 'yunani' or Greek.
Ibn Khaldun records many legends about al-Kāhinat. A number of them refer to her long hair or great size, both legendary characteristics of 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.
Hasan eventually returned and, aided by communications with the captured officer adopted by Kahina, defeated her at a locality (presumably in present-day Algeria) about which there is some uncertainty. Before the battle, foreseeing the outcome, she sent her two real sons over to the Arab army under the care of the adopted son, and Hasan is said to have given one of them charge of a section of his forces. According to some accounts, al-Kāhinat died fighting the invaders, sword in hand, a warrior's death. Other accounts say she committed suicide by swallowing poison rather than be taken by the enemy. This final act occurred in the 690s or 700s, with 702 or 703 given as the most likely year. 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 later centuries, Kahina's legend was used to bolster the claims of Berbers in al-Andalūs against Arab claims of ethnic supremacy—in the early modern age, she was used by French colonials, Berber nationalists, Arab Nationalists, North African Jews, North African feminists, and Maghrebi nationalists alike for their own didactic purposes.
Manly Wade Wellman wrote a historical fantasy novel about her, called Cahena.
Category:7th-century births Category:690s deaths Category:African women in war Category:Algerian rebels Category:Chaoui people Category:Berber people Category:History of Algeria Category:History of North Africa Category:Jews and Judaism in Algeria Category:Women in Medieval warfare Category:Zenata Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Place of birth unknown Category:Year of death unknown Category:Place of death unknown
ar:ديهيا ca:Kàhina de:Al-Kahina es:Kahina fr:Kahena it:Kahina he:קהינה nl:Kahina pt:Kahina ru:Дакия аль-Кахина kab:DihyaThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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