She was said to have been born to a poor Jewish family of cave-dwellers. A chieftain of a Judeo-Berber tribe terrorized her Aures mountain settlement and demanded Kahena as a wife. She slew him with a nail to the skull on the wedding night.

Mysterious Queen of Algerian Israelite and Amazigh peoples. When the Islamized Arabs invaded the Maghreb, al-Kahina first raised the cry "Africa for Africans". (At that time, the late 7th century, only the Mediterranean littoral was known as Africa (Ifriqiya), a fact that those who speak of Africa and North Africa blithely ignore. Centuries would pass before the inner parts of the continent came to be identified as Africa but the Tamazight heartland was the first Africa.)

In short, when her relative Kuseila (a Xian) failed to repel the invading Arab armies Dahya stepped forth. She was queen of the Jarawa who were part of the Zenata. The famous figure of Magreb history, Arab general `Uqba bin Nafi, fell to Dahya. His successor general Hassan bin Numan was forced to retreat before Dahya's defensive onslaught.

"Lions of Ifriqiya and Yehudah, show these Arabs that we will never be enslaved by Islam. Our beloved Africa will remain free. Freedom or death!"

Five years later after Dahya instituted a scorched earth policy that lowered her peoples morale, she fell in battle at the age of 127 to treacherous Amazigh Xian forces sided with the Arabs. Al-Kahina's two sons converted to Islam and retained control of the Amazigh army. Supposedly they were leaders six years later in the Muslim armies which conquered Al-Andalus. But their mother's head was spiced and boxed and sent to the caliph Abd el-Malik who wanted to see this Jewess that had halted his forces and almost disuaded the caliphate from African and Iberian conquest.

Many heroic epics and poems recount the glory of Kahina Dihya bat Tabet haKohen bar Na`an bar Baru bar Masrasi bar Afrad bar Wasila ibn Jarau, chieftess of the Jerawa Zenata of the Aures Mountains.

M. Tabli in Revue Tunisienne V.19 gives this description:

"[She] was, without a doubt, a fearsome woman, half queen, half sorceress, with dark skin, a mass of hair and huge eyes; according to the Arab chroniclers, when she was angry or possessed by her [maggidim] her eyes would turn red and her hair would stand on end."

The illustrations are only fanciful renditions of Dahya by artists of our times namely S. Gaston Dobson from 'A Salute to Historic African Kings and Queens' and Keith Gunderson from 'Wars of the Jews'.