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KahinaKahina, also known as Dihya, Kahya, or al-Kahina was a Berber queen and military leader of the late 600s. Kahya was the daughter of Tabat, a chieftain of the Jarawa tribe of the Aures Mountains. According to most accounts, Kahya and her tribe were Jews, though some scholars dispute this. Her title "al-Kahina" may derive from the Hebrew Kohen or priest. During this period many Jews had sought refuge from Byzantine persecution in the Aures region, bringing their religion to the local Berber tribes. Ibn Khaldun records many legends about Kahya. She had, in her youth, supposedly freed her people from a tyrant by agreeing to marry him and then murdering him on their wedding night. She is also supposed to have had the gift of prophecy. She gave birth to three sons but the identity of the father or fathers is unrecorded. At some point she is said to have adopted a captured Arab officer as her son. Virtually nothing else of her personal life is known. Kahya succeeded Kusaila as the war-leader of the Berber tribes in the 680s and opposed the encroaching Arab armies of the Caliphate. Finally, 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 rather than be taken by the enemy). This was around 693 AD, when she was, according to ancient accounts quoted by Ibn Khaldoun, 127 years old. This was probably not meant literally. Great age was often depicted with exaggerated numbers.
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