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al-Kāhinat (c. 566 - 693, Classical Arabic for "female seer or priest"), modern Darija l-Kahna (commonly romanised as Kah(i)na), also known as Dihya or Kahya, was a female Berber religious and military leader of the late 7th century who led indigenous resistance to the Arabisation and Islamisation of the Maghreb (Northwest Africa).
Her Disputed Origins According to legend, l-Kahna was the daughter of Tabat, a chieftain of the Jrāwa tribe from the Aurès Mountains. Other accounts indicate she was a Jew or that her tribe were Judaised Berbers, though some scholars dispute this. During this period, many Jews had sought refuge from Byzantine persecution in the Aurès region, bringing their religion to the local Berber tribes. On the other hand, Punic settlements and Arab polemicists may have had some effect on how she was called. Her title may originally have been a Punic, Hebrew or Aramaic word; it is difficult to determine how she obtained the Arabic title al-Kāhinat. The term was used by pagan Punics and Arabs to refer to female seers and priests, by Jews to refer to someone of the priestly Kohen lineage, and perhaps by Muslim Arabs to refer to non-Muslim sorcerers and witches. Ibn Khaldun records many legends about l-Kahna. Many legends 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 was an alleged trait of sorcerers in tales. Her adopted son was a captured Arab officer, and before her defeat, she allegedly sent all three sons over to the Muslims so they would not die in the fighting. 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. Her Legendary Life L-Kahna succeeded Kusaila as the war-leader of the Berber tribes in the 680s and opposed the encroaching Arab armies of the Caliphate. She defeated the Arab armies once, then faced them again five years later. Realizing that the enemy was too powerful, she 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. According to some accounts, she 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 was around 693 CE, when she was, according to ancient accounts quoted by Ibn Khaldun, 127 years old, placing her birth circa 566. This was probably not meant literally, as great age was often depicted with exaggerated numbers. In later times, her 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 Europeans, Berbers and Arabs alike for their own didactic purposes. | ||||||||
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