This Queen Used Visions to Defeat an Entire Army

Video summary

Dihya defeated Hassan’s 40,000-man army, then fell after scorched-earth tactics fractured Imazighen resistance.

Around 697, Dihya, the Imazighen queen known to Arab sources as al-Kahina, faced Umayyad general Hassan ibn al-Nuʿmān in the Aurès Mountains. After the Arabs captured Carthage, she rallied tribes and defeated Hassan’s army—reported as 40,000 strong—at a river near present-day Meskiana, forcing him to retreat nearly 2,000 kilometers. Hassan returned about five years later, and Dihya reportedly ordered orchards, crops, towns, and fortresses destroyed to deny the invaders resources. The policy alienated her people, though historians question whether she was responsible for the destruction. Her adopted son Khalid was said to have aided Hassan; Dihya was killed in the late 690s after urging her sons to seek peace and convert to Islam. The video traces the conquest’s aftermath and Dihya’s changing legacy, from colonial symbol to enduring emblem of Imazighen identity and resistance.

Chapters

1. 0:00Free People: Imazighen communities and Dihya in the Aurès Mountains
2. 2:58Rise of a Queen: Hassan’s 40,000-man campaign meets Dihya
3. 5:08The River of Sufferings: Dihya routs Hassan near Meskiana
4. 9:49The Last Stand: Dihya’s scorched-earth campaign and death
5. 12:50The Eternal Queen: Dihya’s legacy from the 711 conquest of Spain to her 2003 statue