Kahinah Dahiyah Bint Thabitah Ibn Tifan

Jewish princess of a Berber tribe likewise called Kahinah; lived in the second half of the seventh century. According to the Mohammedan historians, the most powerful tribe at the time of the Arab invasion of the Maghreb was the Jewish one named Kahinah (probably from the Hebrew ), which extended its domination over nearly all the Berbers. It occupied Mount Aures (Atlas) and was governed by the princess Kahinah Dahiyah, who covered herself with glory in her fight against the invading army. She defeated the Arabian general Ḥassan ibn al-Nu'man, and compelled the Arabs to withdraw. When, five years later (694), Ḥassan received a large reenforcement, and advanced against the Berbers, Kahinah ordered all the Berber cities to be destroyed, hoping that the Arabs would then renounce fighting for the conquest of a waste land. But they persisted in their attack; and Kahinah fell near a well which, in memory of the heroine, is still called "Bir al-Kahinah."

Bibliography:

  * Ibn Khaldun, Kitab Ta'arikh al-Duwal, i. 135;
  * Kayserling, Jüdische Frauen, p. 73;
  * Bloch, Les Vertues Militaires des Juifs, p. 50.



G. I. Br.