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Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People - Rafapal

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REALMS OF SILENCE 203<br />

mighty forces <strong>of</strong> Hassan ibn al-Nu'man). Five years later, after <strong>the</strong> queen had<br />

implemented a scorched-earth policy and destroyed towns and villages along<br />

<strong>the</strong> coast, Arab reinforcements arrived and overwhelmed <strong>the</strong> forces <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

bold Berber ruler, and she herself was killed in battle. Her sons converted to<br />

Islam and joined <strong>the</strong> conquerors, and this was <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> her long reign, which<br />

remains shrouded in myths and mystery.<br />

Ibn Khaldun was not <strong>the</strong> only Arab historian to describe <strong>the</strong> fascinating<br />

deeds <strong>of</strong> Dihya al-Kahina. Earlier Arab writers, from <strong>the</strong> ninth century CE,<br />

described in detail her fight against <strong>the</strong> Muslim conquerors. <strong>The</strong> Baghdadbased<br />

writer al-Waqidi emphasized her cruel treatment <strong>of</strong> her own subjects;<br />

Khalifa ibn Khayyat al-Usfuri dated her defeat to 693 CE; <strong>the</strong> Persian historian<br />

Ahmad al-Baladhuri recounted <strong>the</strong> story in brief; and Ibn Abd al-Hakam, who<br />

lived in Egypt, expounded <strong>the</strong> story <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> queen's son who also fought against<br />

<strong>the</strong> invaders. 22 Muslim historians who followed Ibn Khaldun continued<br />

to write about <strong>the</strong> Judaized queen, and her story was picked up by modern<br />

scholars.<br />

Many legends formed around <strong>the</strong> acts and personality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> female<br />

Berber <strong>Jewish</strong> leader. During <strong>the</strong> colonial period, French writers revived <strong>the</strong><br />

old myths in order to highlight <strong>the</strong> historical fact that <strong>the</strong> Arabs were invaders<br />

whom <strong>the</strong> local populace had fiercely resisted. Later, in <strong>the</strong> postcolonial period,<br />

Kahina became an Arab—sometimes a Berber—heroine, a forerunner <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

French national heroine Joan <strong>of</strong> Arc. Since Arabic literature referred to her as<br />

a mysterious Jewess, some Zionist historians were intrigued, and a few took<br />

up <strong>the</strong> story as though Dihya was a late incarnation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> biblical prophetess<br />

Deborah.<br />

Nahum Slouschz, a diligent Zionist historian <strong>of</strong> North Africa's Jews who<br />

completed his doctoral <strong>the</strong>sis in Paris, was <strong>the</strong> first to install Kahina in <strong>the</strong><br />

modern <strong>Jewish</strong> memory. 23 As early as 1909 he published two essays about <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>Jewish</strong> Berbers, and an article entitled "<strong>The</strong> Kahina's Race." 24 He argued that<br />

North Africa was settled by large numbers <strong>of</strong> Jews who came from Jerusalem,<br />

22 On <strong>the</strong>se authors, see Abdelmajid Hannoum, Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial<br />

Memories: <strong>The</strong> Legend <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Kahina, A North African Heroine, Portsmouth: Heinemann,<br />

2001, 2-15; also H. Z. Hirschberg, "<strong>The</strong> Berber Kahina," Tarbiz 27 (1957 [in Hebrew]), 371-6.<br />

23 He was preceded by a French Jew named David Cazes, who argued that <strong>the</strong> great<br />

Queen Kahina was not <strong>Jewish</strong>, and indeed persecuted <strong>the</strong> Jews. For it is known that <strong>the</strong><br />

"Children <strong>of</strong> Israel" have always been weak and persecuted, and could never be tyrannical<br />

rulers. See in this connection, Hannoum, Colonial Histories, 51-5<br />

24 Nahum Slouschz, Un voyage d'études juives en Afrique: Judéo-Hellènes et Judéo-<br />

Berbéris, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1909; and "La race de la Kahina," Revue Indigène:<br />

Organe des Intérêts des Indigènes aux Colonies 44 (1909), 573-83.

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