Colonial Histories, Postcolonial Memories 0325002533, 9780325002538

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Memory to History
2. Colonial Histories
3. From History to Fiction
4. Post-Colonial Memories
5. Literature and History
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Citation preview

S tudies in A frican L iterature ▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼TY'T'T'WTY'T'W

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

Recent Titles in Studies

in

A frican L iterature

African Popular Theatre: From Precolonial Times to the Present Day David Kerr The Marabout and the Muse: New Approaches to Islam in African Literature Kenneth W Harrow, editor Bessie Head: Thunder Behind Her Ears Gillian Stead Eilersen New Writing from Southern Africa: Authors Who Have Become Prominent Since 1980 Emmanuel Ngara, editor Ngugi wa Thiong’o: An Exploration o f His Writings, Second Edition David Cook and Michael Okenimkpe Writers in Politics: A Re-Engagement with Issues of Literature and Society Ngugi wa Thiong’o The African Novel in English: An Introduction M. Keith Booker A Teachers Guide to African Narratives Sara Talis O’Brien Womens Voices in a Man’s World: Women and the Pastoral Tradition in Northern Somali Orature, c. 1899-1980 Lidwien Kapteijns with Maryan Omar Ali Running towards Us: New Writing from South Africa Isabel Balseiro, editor Alex La Guma: Politics and Resistance Nahem Yousaf Recasting Postcolonialism: Women Writing Between Worlds Anne Donadey

,

Colonial Histories Post-Colonial Memories The Legend o f the Kahina, A North African Heroine

Abdelmajid H annoum

H E IN E M A N N Portsm outh, N H

Heinemann A division of Reed Elsevier Inc. 361 Hanover Street Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912 www.heinemann.com © 2001 by Abdelmajid Hannoum All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. ISBN 0-325-00253-3 (Heinemann cloth)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hannoum, Abdelmajid, 1960Colonial histories, post-colonial memories : the legend of the Kahina, a North African heroine / Abdelmajid Hannoum. p. cm.— (Studies in African literature, ISSN 1351-5713) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-325-00253-3 (alk. paper) 1. Klhina, Queen of the Berbers, 7th cent.—Legends. 2. Berbers—Africa, North— Folklore. 3. Folklore—Africa, North. 4. Arabs—Africa, North— Folklore. I. Title. II. Series. GR353.B43 H36 2001 398.2'089'933— dc21 00-063249 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. 05 04 03 02 01 SB 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Copyright Acknowledgments The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce the fol­ lowing material: A French version of chapter 1 appeared as "Historiographie et légende au Maghreb: La Kahina ou la production d’une mémoire” in Annales: Histoire et Sciences Sociales (May-June 1999), pp. 667-686. Reprinted by permission. Chapter 2 includes excerpts from Abdelmajid Hannoum, "Myth and Mythmaking in French Historiography of North Africa,” Hespiris-Tamuday no. 34 (1996), pp. 131-138. Reprinted by permission. Chapter 4 is a revised version of Abdelmajid Hannoum, "Historiography, Mythol­ ogy, and Memory in North Africa,” Studia Islámica (February 1997), pp. 85-130. Reprinted by permission. Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowl­ edgments in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.

O n ce again, to m y brother, A bdelkrim

Historical knowledge is the answer to definite questions, an answer which m ust be given by the past; but the questions themselves are put and dictated by the present. — Ernest Cassirer M emory is not only the constituting consciousness o f the past, but an effort to reopen time on the basis o f the implications contained in the present. — Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction

xiii XV

1

From Memory to History

2

Colonial Histories

29

3

From History to Fiction

71

4

Post-Colonial Memories

111

5

Literature and History

161

1

Conclusion

185

Bibliography

191

Index

207

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been completed w ithout the help o f many friends and colleagues, as well as the financial support o f some institutions. Princeton University provided grants that helped w ith my fieldwork in France and N orth Africa. T he Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton generously offered me an ideal setting to prepare the book for publication. At H einem ann Press, my sincere thanks to Lynn Zelem, to Ann O ’H ear for her meticulous reading and editing o f the final draft, and to Jim Lance for his patience and advice all along. T hough my deepest thanks extend to all o f the people who have assisted me in different ways, I w ant to acknowledge especially Nadia Benabid, Sue Bannon, Joseph Sholvin, Patricia Ponzoli and George Pitcher for their en­ during support. Michael Cook’s knowledge o f Islamic history and com­ ments were very helpful in the early stages o f this manuscript. Lawrence Rosen provided critical comments that helped to shape this manuscript. Gananath Obyesekere has been an invaluable source o f advice and encour­ agement. I extend my deepest gratitude to Daniel Reig, who accompanied me through two academic journeys; his support has always been infallible, and his influence on this book is undeniable. Laura Bunt graciously read the final version o f the manuscript. And, finally, I am especially grateful to Clifford G e e ra for his interest in the project and his inestimable support and encouragement.

Femme de l’Aurès by J-Irriéra. From E. Albertini, G. Marçais, G. Yver, L'Afrique française dans lhistoire (Paris: Editions Archat, 1934).

Introduction

It is true that it has been noticed that some legends are endowed with a very strong vitality in crossing the most diverse social groups. But at each time of their passage, they are tinged with new colors. Nothing is more instructive than following them in their peregri­ nations. The most remarkable of them perhaps are those concern­ ing some individuals whose acts or situations made them particu­ larly striking to the collective imagination.1 Marc Bloch, the author o f this idea, did not undertake any detailed study o f it. If the great historian had done so, even he would not have dreamt o f a legend such as that o f the Kahina. No legend has been adopted, trans­ formed, or used by as many social groups as the legend o f the Kahina. No character, real or imaginary, has been metamorphosed as has been the char­ acter o f the Kahina. And consequently, no legend has articulated or pro­ moted as many myths, nor served as many ideologies as this one. It has reflected most o f the modern ideologies in the Mediterranean and mirrored the early Islamic ideology and the medieval ideology o f Islam, as well as modern ideologies in both Europe and Islam: colonial ideology, European anti-colonialism, Arab nationalism, N orth African nationalism, Berber na­ tionalism, Zionism, and feminism. The character herself has been trans­ formed accordingly. She has been changed constantly from a Berber to a Jew, to a Christian, to a Byzantine, to an Arab. Even her description as a woman, which may seem the most stable, has been transformed. Having exhausted the Mediterranean categories o f ethnic groups, she also exhausted gender categories. From a woman, she has been changed to a man, then to

XVI

Introduction

a eunuch. T hat is, she has changed to a category that is neither female nor male. T he legend is crucial in Islamic N orth African history. This is not be­ cause the character is uniquely striking, but because she represents a m o­ m ent when N orth Africa changed, was reborn and regenerated. Indeed, the story o f the Kahina is the story o f an origin: it tells how N orth Africa— once Berber, Roman, Byzantine, and Christian— became w hat it is now, that is, Arab and Muslim. Before examining the legend in a separate chap­ ter, let us p ut it in its wider context.2 In the seventh century A.D. w hen the Arab arm y swept away the au­ th o rity o f the Byzantines from Egypt and Syria, N o rth Africa still re­ m ained a territory o f the Byzantine Em pire. T h e idea o f its conquest, deem ed dangerous, was dismissed by the caliph 'U m ar. It was only after his death in 644 a . d . th a t 'U th m ân , the new C aliph, decided to launch an expedition to the "rem ote Perfidious lan d ,” as it had been called by 'U m ar. In 6 4 7 -4 8 a . d . 'A bd 'Allah b. Abî Sarh headed a campaign to Ifiîqiya. H e attacked and defeated Exarch Gregory, b u t instead o f establishing an Arab government, he was content to sign a peace treaty w ith the popula­ tion in exchange for a sum o f money. A few years later, another expedition, less im portant and seemingly only punitive, was undertaken by M u'âw iya b. Hudayj. T he first serious attem pt to conquer N orth Africa was made by 'U q b a b. N âfi', during the Umayyad period. 'U qba moved to Ifiîqiya, and soon founded a military city, Qayrawân, which w ould serve as his base in the country. His mission was momentarily interrupted by his dismissal, but a new governor, D înâr Abû al-Muhâjir, was appointed w ith the same mis­ sion. A t this point, the first Berber resistance emerged under the leadership o f Kusayla, from the Awrâba, a sedentary and Christianized tribe. W hether Kusayla converted to Islam or not, it seems that a peace treaty was con­ cluded between him and Abû al-Muhâjir. At any rate, Abû al-M uhâjir was removed in turn from his position and replaced by his predecessor 'U qba, who did not appreciate the work o f his successor— in particular the evacu­ ation o f the capital, Qayrawân, and the alliance w ith Kusayla. M ost narra­ tives relate 'U qba’s mistreatment o f both Abû al-M uhâjir and Kusayla. We do not know for sure w hether Kusayla escaped at that time, and repudiated his treaty w ith the Arabs, or w hether he was taken prisoner like Abû alM uhâjir and later liberated by the Berbers. It is here that one finds, with the fourteenth-century historian Ibn Khaldûn, something like a presence o f

Introduction

XVII

the Kahina. Ibn Khaldûn maintains that the Kahina plotted Kusayla’s lib­ eration and that the Arabs knew about it. 'U q b a lau n ch ed his great ex p ed itio n from his o rig in al cap ital, Qayrawân; he successively attacked Baghya, Tlemcen, and Tangiers, and finally reached the near Sûs in the region west o f Moulouya, in Morocco. It is at this point that one finds another shadowy suggestion o f the Kahina. O n his way back, 'U q b a was killed by the Berbers near Tahûda, a Ro­ man fortress in the neighborhood o f Biskra. Kusayla then emerged as the leader o f the Berbers, from the Arab city o f Qayrawân. In Damascus, as soon as the Caliph got w ind o f the defeat o f the Arab army, he sent another expedition w ith a new general, Zuhayr b. Qays. In­ formed about the new expedition, Kusayla evacuated Qayrawân, and a battle took place near Mems in the Aurès. Kusayla was killed. Zuhayr b. Qays died in a clash w ith a Byzantine force as he was returning to Egypt. T he next episode involving the Kahina is the final phase o f the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa. It is at that time, after the fierce opposition o f the Kahina, that N orth Africa became an Arab possession once and for all. Even though a principal theme o f this study is the military conquest o f N orth Africa, especially this decisive episode o f the Kahina, my chief aim is not to write a history o f the event, b ut rather to examine w hat may be called an ideological conquest. My aim is to examine how N orth Africa, from its conquest by the Arabs to its independence from the French, was subdued ideologically by the elaboration o f a mythology which has made it sometimes Arab, sometimes French, sometimes Berber, and sometimes Jew­ ish. M yth and ideology are two terms I shall be using systematically in this study. These two terms have been extensively used in the second half o f the twentieth century, to the point that they have sometimes passed from op­ erational concepts to vulgar, derogatory words. T he term ideology is used to discredit someone as having a false consciousness. T he term myth is also used to dismiss someone’s vision as false. Even am ong specialists, the two words have been used variously.3 1 should clarify briefly what I mean when I use each o f them , and how I perceive the relation between them. By m yth I understand a narrative which intends to justify or consolidate the situation o f a group; it may also m aintain or fortify an aspiration or a claim. Myths are not necessarily fantastic accounts, but narratives w ith a social function. Myths, as defined by George Dumézil, are Orientated narratives, narratives based, or not based, on a situation or a real event, it does not matter; but in each case they have two

xim i

Introduction

missions: either to help society to admit, to prefer, to maintain, the conditions and the forms of its present existence or to justify and reinforce such-and-such claim or such-and-such aspiration, either old or recent, o f that same society.4 Consequently, myth can be expressed in various narrative forms. It can then be articulated through legends, history, literature, oral tradition, film, and painting. In feet, the study o f myths embraces all these different cul­ tural forms, and its object is ultimately a “cultural totality.” It is this per­ spective which has recently been adopted by mythologists.$ As for ideology, it is defined as a group’s interpretation o f the world, which may be expressed through a set o f ideas, myths, and concepts. The ideological structure o f a group can be articulated through its mythology. Louis Althusser defines ideology as follows: An ideology is a system (with its own logic and rigor) of represen­ tations (images, myths, ideas or concepts, depending on the case) endowed with a historical existence and role within a given soci­ ety.6 T he ideology o f a group is always in conflict with the ideologies o f other groups, that is, with other systems o f ideas that thwart, obstruct, or cat­ egorically oppose the interests o f a given group. In like manner, a mythol­ ogy is specific to a group. It is a vision o f the world that dictates the groups actions. In this study, I will analyze various cultural forms related to the Kahina— historiography, political writings, novels, plays, poetry, and oral tradition. I shall assume that the episode o f the Kahina interested so many groups, not only because it is a story o f the heroic resistance o f a woman, but also, especially, because it is a narrative related to the origins o f differ­ ent groups. W hile writing the same episode, historians, novelists, poets, and others have expressed their current concerns, and talked in fact about their hopes, their aspirations, their claims. The analysis o f each mythology is undertaken in relation to others. O ne o f my aims is to see how a specific situation gives rise to a mythology, how a given mythology functions in a cultural era, and how certain conditions change, modify, or even transform it so that it fulfills different functions. At the same time, however, I will show how one mythology is born from another as a continuation or antithesis, and how different mythologies func­ tion together within specific groups. T he task is ambitious. It is precisely this ambition that can serve as an excuse for any deficiencies that may be noticed in this work.

Introduction

xix

A N ote on Transliteration The name o f the Kahina has been transliterated in different ways: Kahena, El-Cahena, El-Kahena, El-Kahéna, al-Kâhina. The last is a better translit­ eration o f the name in Arabic historiography, but not o f its actual N orth African pronunciation where there is no long vowel (â) and sometimes no article: al-kahina or kahina. In this study, I adopt one single transliteration, the Kahina, only for the sake o f orthographic consistency. I have also adopted one single transliteration o f the names o f the supporting cast o f characters, except in the works o f fiction and folklore where I choose to leave the authors original orthography intact. Notes 1. M. Bloch, “Réflexions d’un historien sur les fausses rumeurs de la guerre,” in Mélanges historiques (Paris: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 1963), vol. I, p. 56. 2. See, among others, Jamal Abu an-Nasr, A History o f the Maghreb (Cam­ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971). Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de l A ’ frique du Nord (Paris: Payot, 1951 and 1952). First volume revised by Ch. Courtois, second by R. Le Tourneau. English translation by John Petrie, The History o f North Africa (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970). Abdallah Laroui, L’histoire du Maghreb (Paris: Maspero, 1973). English translation by Ralph Manheim, The History o f the Maghreb (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977). 3. For a general view of myth, sec S. Cohen, “Theories of Myth,” in Man, The Journal ofthe Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 4, no. 3, September 1962, pp. 337-53. For the theories of the second half o f the twentieth century, see especially Algirdas J. Greimas, “Mythology as Object,” in O f Gods and Men, translated from Lithuanian by Milda Newman (Bloomington and Indianapo­ lis: Indiana University Press, 1992, pp. 1-17); also Pierre Smith, “Mythe,” art. in Encyclopaedia Universalis, vol. 15, pp. 1037-39. For ideology, see especially Joseph Gabel, “Idéologie,” art. in Encycbpaedia Universalis, vol. 11, pp. 901-5. 4. G. Dumézil, “Mythe et Histoire,” in Histoire et divinité des cultures (Paris: UNESCO, 1984), pp. 43-44. 5. M. Detienne, L’invention de la mythologie (Paris: Gallimard, 1981); En­ glish translation by Margaret Cook, The Creation o f Mythology (Chicago: Chi­ cago University Press, 1986). Also Greimas, “Mythology as Object.” 6. L. Althusser, For Mane, English translation by Ben Brewster (New York: Pantheon Books, 1969), p. 321.

Chapter 1 wwTwwrw'W'W'w

From M emory to H istory

D ’où venait-elle? Que signifie-t-elle? O ù l’appréhender? — Marcel Proust

Historically the episode o f the Kahina ended between 693 and 702 a . d ., according to different versions, when she was killed by Hassân b. al-Nu'm ân. It is only in the ninth century, however, that we find the earliest narratives about the event. In other words, textually, the legend starts more than a century and a half later than the historical episode. O ne might well ask: how can we explain the lapse o f time between the event in question— the resistance o f the Kahina— and its narration? I will show how historiogra­ phy was constructing, gradually, the legend o f the Kahina, and at the same time explain w hat the account o f the Kahina means in every phase o f its transformation. T he main goal is to show that the account o f the Kahina was first transm itted orally, and even when it was put in writing it continued to be a part o f folklore. Doubtless, the events were accompanied by a m ul­ titude o f texts. In the beginning, perhaps, there were as many narratives as there were participants in the event. Furthermore, it is possible that the event was not only an object o f narration o f the participants but also o f both communities— Berbers and Muslims— because o f its enormous importance for them. The event was the concern o f both communities, the Muslim com m unity which saw the territory o f Islam extended, and the Berbers who saw their land taken. It is unavoidable in this situation that the story was first appropriated by the oral tradition and that it was

2

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

told differently by different parties. Studies have shown, in modern times, that the narratives o f wars in particular are highly subject, from the very first, to the influence o f folktale. The fighters themselves tell the same stories in a way that is very different from other stories, integrating their own folklore.1 O ne would find it difficult to exclude the hypothesis that some writings were lost earlier on. It is possible, on the other hand, that the story o f the Kahina was initially narrated orally, first by those who participated in the event and second by those who were members o f both communities, Berber as well as Muslim. For in fact, both o f these com­ munities were very concerned with narrating the story o f the Kahina be­ cause o f the importance o f the event that drastically changed their lives. So it is legitimate to conclude that the legend o f the Kahina was at first a part o f the oral tradition, and though it continued to be so, it was appropriated by historiography. It should be mentioned here that Arabic historiography about the Kahina imposes its own division on the analyst, from both spatial and temporal points o f view. O ne type o f account was written in the early period, exclu­ sively by Muslim historians from Medina, Baghdad, and Basra, that is, from the Mashriq. The second type was written in the medieval period, that is from the thirteenth to the fourteenth centuries, by historians mainly, but not exclusively, Maghribi. For the sake o f comprehensiveness, a m od­ ern tradition o f N orth African historiography will also be examined in this chapter in order to understand the transformation o f the legend in colo­ nial and post-colonial N orth African historiography as examined in subse­ quent chapters.

H istory and Folklore The earliest account at our disposal about the Kahina goes back to W âqidî (d. 822), but the account is also reported by a historian o f the thirteenth century, Ibn al-Athîr (d. 1233): Wâqidî reported that the Kahina emerged, angry because of the assassination of Kusayla. She ruled the whole of Ifnqiya and in­ flicted on its inhabitants awful punishments. She brutally oppressed them. The Muslims of Qayrawân were severely treated after the death of Zuhayr b. Qays in 67 [a. h .]. 'Abd al-Malik appointed Hassan b. al-Nu'mân in Ifriqiya. He marched with a huge army and advanced on the Kahina. They fought each other and the Muslims were defeated, many of them killed. Vanquished, Hassân returned to the vicinity of Barqa where he settled until 74. 'Abd

Front M emory to History

3

al-Malik sent to him a massive army, with orders to attack the Kahina. Hassan advanced on her. He defeated her, killing her and her sons. He then returned to Qayrawân.2 In the ninth century, we find another account o f the Kahina which can be traced back directly to its author. Khalifa ibn Khayyât al-' Usfftri (d. 854 A.D.) reports in his Târîkh ,3 arranged year by year, that in 57 A.H., M u'âwiya b. Abî Sufyân sent Hassan b. al-N u'm ân to Ifriqiya. There, Hassân accepted a peace treaty in exchange for an annual tribute (kharâj). Ibn Khayyât adds that Hassân remained in Ifriqiya until the death o f M u'âwiya (59/678).4 O ne would well think that Hassân served twice in Ifriqiya— once during the reign o f M u'âwiya, the second time during the reign o f 'A bd al-Malik b. Marwân (685-705). Elsewhere in the same book, Ibn Khayyât mentions that Hassân conquered the Awrâs in the year 72/691.5 He relates that the Kahina was killed in 74/693.6 Aside from a slight difference in dates, Ibn Khayyâts account does not contradict the W âqidî-Ibn al-Athîr account; it only tells us less. In the same century, we find another short account o f the Kahina by Balâdhurî (d. 892). For his account, however, he uses W âqidî and others (qâla al-W âqidî wa ghayruh). According to this account Hassân defeated the Kahina, after having first been defeated by her.7 O ne can see that both Ibn Khayyâts and Balâdhurî’s accounts are very concise. O ne would assume that it is precisely because o f their brevity that the two historians do not explicitly m ention what W âqidî states clearly— the su te o f anarchy, injustice, and oppression o f Muslims and non-M us­ lims and the killings o f the Kahinas sons. In W âqidîs account, the situation in N orth Africa is, from the begin­ ning, a situation o f disorder, injustice, and tyranny created by a nonMuslim female ruler. The law o f Islam was suspended after the death o f Zuhayr when the Kahina came to power. This situation is expressed differ­ ently by the three historians. For W âqidî it is explicit, and there is a description in his account o f the misdeeds o f the Kahina— ill-treating Muslims, brutalizing the population o f Ifriqiya. In Balâdhurî it is expressed by the death o f a Muslim general and by the takeover o f a non-M uslim female ruler. In Ibn Khayyât, the appointm ent o f Hassân as a general presupposes what the semioticians call a “situation o f lack” (un ¿tat de manque), which makes the Caliph send a hero to “fulfill the lack.”8 This mission is in fact a collective obligation in Islam, well known as the Jihâd? T he Caliph commits himself to the Jihâd when he concludes his bay'axa w ith the Muslim community. T he Jihâd involves defending Muslims and expanding the territory o f Islam.

4

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

In these early accounts the Caliph himself fulfills his mission by ap­ pointing another Muslim to undertake personally the mission o f defend­ ing Muslims and establishing Islam. In fact, it is Hassân who is the real hero, so to speak; the Caliph is only a sender, that is, he makes the mis­ sion possible. Hassân, too, fulfills his contract as a Muslim and as an officer in the Muslim army by undertaking the task. At any rate, in W âqidî’s account, Hassân was successful in achieving his mission only at the second attempt. In the first attem pt, the Kahina defeated him. However, his defeat is only a test; ultimately the goal is attained— killing the Kahina and restoring Islam. Ibn Khayyâts and Balâdhurîs accounts, for the sake o f brevity, m ention only the final, glo­ rifying test. T he episode o f the Kahina, w ith all its variants, is a story o f a quest. As in the folktale, the situation is troubled by an anti-hero, and there is a need for a remedy which a hero undertakes, by request o f an actor. In these accounts, the hero, that is, the subject with positive connotations and in charge o f a mission, is a Muslim, Hassân b. al-N u'm ân. T he antihero, that is, the subject with negative connotations, responsible for the worsening o f the situation, is the Kahina, a non-M uslim female. In these accounts the description which makes Hassân a hero is his status as a Muslim, for Arabic historiography was addressed to Muslims. T he descrip­ tion that makes the Kahina an anti-hero is her status as a non-M uslim. In the final analysis, w hat the texts set in opposition is, in fact, Islam and infidelity. By her rule in Ifrîqiya, the Kahina suspended the rule o f Islam and established disorder. By defeating her, Hassan swept away infidelity and restored the law o f God. These three accounts explain, in their own way, the final conquest o f Ifrîqiya. T he Kahina, by her rule, imposed conquest on the Muslims. T he Muslims, because o f Islam, undertook to destroy infidelity and restore Islam. Ultimately, it is Islam which, in Ifrîqiya, creates an “after,” marked by peace, order, and justice, and a “before,” marked by infidelity, tyranny, and injustice. A century after the death o f the Prophet, the Muslim com m unity had already elaborated its mythology. T he expeditions, the conquests o f other peoples lands, were not aggression, nor were they motivated by material interest, but they were rather a fulfillment o f G ods will. Islam, a religion o f peace (versus the anarchy o f others, in this case, the Kahina) and sur­ render to G od (versus surrender to a hum an being, in this case, the Kahina) m ust be carried out. Once again, I emphasize that these accounts were written in the Mashriq, and addressed to the Muslim community. T he mythology they contain is

From Memory to History

5

an Arab, Islamic mythology, which justifies the conquest o f Ifrîqiya and the subjugation o f another people. At this point, this mythology does not concern the Berbers. Soon, however, problems related to the conquests arose in Ifrîqiya. While the Islamic mythology presents the conquests as a good thing because Islam was brought to the Berbers, the sociological situation was different. As in any conquest (or colonization), the winners adopt an arrogant atti­ tude toward the losers, looking down at them. T he losers, on the other hand, respond secretly, with an attitude o f hatred, and when possible they have recourse to revolt and rebellion in an attem pt to get rid o f the au­ thority imposed upon them. For they know that their land has been taken, that their dignity has been removed, and that other men, not God, con­ quered them. Historians tell us about a huge literature, including forged hadtths, which portrayed the Berbers as despicable and mean. T he same historians tell us about the numerous revolts through which Berber leaders and even prophets sought to sweep away the Arab dom ination." Finally the Berbers achieved a significant am ount o f autonomy, which later devel­ oped into strong Berber dynasties12 that, in turn, adopted the same Arab mythology. After the achievement o f Berber autonomy, the accounts o f the Kahina took on a different form in Egypt, a country that has long been consid­ ered as a link to N orth Africa. It is Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam (d. 871) who provides us with an account differing from that o f W âqidî.13 Unlike our previous historians, Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam undertook a local history, that is, o f Egypt and the Maghrib. Furthermore, Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam was not totally dependent on the “oriental school” o f historiography; he undertook a personal search in Egypt among those who had a memory o f the events o f his history.14 Although he was not a Maghribi, Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam was a pioneer o f the “Maghribi school” o f historiography. Let us now examine his account o f the Kahina. It should be mentioned that Ibn 'A bd al-Hakams text is unusual. There is more than one voice in his account, including one that is possibly his own. There are various voices; some are identified, some are anonymous. It is a polyphonic text, to use Bakhtins terminology," or better yet, it is an intertextual text. By this I mean that it is a text made up o f various texts muddled together, w ithout being harmonized at all, each expressing a dif­ ferent opinion, which should not be confused with that o f the author. The first narrative in Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam’s text is taken from his master 'U thm ân b. Sâlih (m. 835). His authority is reinforced by other anony­ mous guarantors ('U thm ân waghayruh). According to this narrative, 'U qba conquered Sûs, and headed to Ifrîqiya. He dismissed all but a few o f his

6

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

companions. He then went to Tahûda where he was attacked by Kusayla. 'U qba and all his companions perished. Kusayla then headed to Qayrawân.16 Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam reports another account, this time anonymous. The Kahina, or rather her shadowy presence, appears in this account long be­ fore the arrival o f Hassan. It has been said (qila), the account has it, that 'U qba launched his expedition from Egypt. W hile he was heading to the South, he was followed by the son o f the Kahina (ibn al-Kâhina), who destroyed whatever wells 'U qba had left behind. Finally, 'U qba reached the West, could go no further because o f the sea, and decided to turn back. O n his way, he was attacked and killed. None o f his companions was spared. The son o f the Kahina walked to Qayrawân to attack 'U m ar b. 'All and Zuhayr b. Qays. He was killed and his army was destroyed.17 After reading these two narratives, one is puzzled. O ne does not know whether the son o f the Kahina is Kusayla or another person. The multi­ plicity o f the narrators* voices, a form o f polyphony, reflects in this case different opinions; hence the ambiguity and the confusion o f Ibn 'A bd alHakam’s text. If polyphony, as defined by Bakhtin, exists in historiogra­ phy, it can only be confusing in a genre that intends to inform and explain at once.18 As for the narrative regarding the expedition o f Hassân and his en­ counter with the Kahina, it is anonymous. It seems, however, to derive directly from the authority o f Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam. Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam gives us the date o f 73/692 for the expedition o f Hassân. Hassân went to Tripolitania and from there to Carthage, already a deserted city when Hassân arrived. He then attacked the Kahina, the queen o f the Berbers, who ruled most o f Ifriqiya. He met her near a river called the nahr albalâ' (the river o f the tribulation). The battle was bitter. Hassân was de­ feated and many o f his companions perished. Eighty o f them were taken prisoner. The Kahina treated them kindly. She even released them all, except one by the name o f Khâlid b. Yazîd al-'Absî whom she adopted as her son. It is at this point that the form o f the narrative o f the Kahina changes, and becomes a dialogue, having a literary and even a fictional form. As a matter o f fact the narrative now introduces a plot device explaining the rest o f the story. It is the captivity o f Khâlid that is henceforth the center o f the legend. It explains, first, the acquisition by Hassân o f the neces­ sary competence, thanks to Khâlid, before his final clash with the Kahina. Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam tells us that Hassân wrote to Khâlid asking for in­ formation about the Kahina. Khâlid responded, and hid his message in a piece o f bread before he gave it to the messenger. The Kahina went out, shouting repeatedly, “O my sons, your ruin is in what people eat.”19

From M emory to History

7

Khâlid wrote another message that, this time, he put in the knob o f his saddle. Again the Kahina was alerted and went out, shouting and repeat­ ing to her sons that their ruin was hidden in an object made o f dead plants. T he content o f the message is not revealed to us, but it is easy to assume that it has to do with the final battle. T he captivity o f Khâlid, as a plot device, also makes possible the dialogue between the Arabs and the Kahina; it explains the participation o f the Berbers in the Islamization o f the Maghreb. Thus, when Hassan approached the place o f the Kahina, She went out, letting loose her hair. She said: “My sons! W hat do you see in the sky?” They responded: “We see some red clouds.” She said “No! By my Lord, it is the dust o f the Arab cavalry.” She then added, talking to Khâlid ben Yazîd: “I have adopted you for a day such as this one. I am dying, and I would recommend that you take good care of your two brothers.” Khâlid responded: “If what you say is true, I am afraid that they will not be able to escape death.” “Yes, they will. One of them will even gain greater prestige among the Arabs than he now has. Go and obtain their protection.”20 It should be noted that this dialogism is monologic. The various voices here do not imply, nor do they reflect, a multiplicity o f points o f views, o f positions, o f ideologies. They all reflect the voice o f the author, the status o f whom is, however, very problematic. The classical Arab historian does not seem to have had a distinct status, and even his profession, or rather craft, was long ignored, at least until the tenth century. It did not appear in the catalogue o f the sciences.21 Classical Arab historiography, a compila­ tion (jam '), seems to be a public textual corpus. Arab literary critics, in­ transigent when it comes to literary plagiarism, do not say a word about historians who spend their time copying from each other. The historical narrative, I believe, is constructed independently o f the historian. In a sense, it is the community that gives us the historical discourse, a dis­ course oriented toward a goal, in the service o f an ideology, that is, a discourse constructed as a mythology. We shall return to this issue later on. In any case, the dialogism found in Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam, repeated by almost all the subsequent historians, should not mislead us. Once again, it is monologic in the sense that the dialogue o f the Kahina with her sons, with Khâlid, does not express any distinct positions, but serves only the ideology o f the text. This dialogism expresses in fact the consent o f the Berbers, their adherence to Islam, and their active contribution to the

8

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Islamization o f the country. The Kahina speaks in Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam’s text, but only to express the opinions o f the Muslim community. Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam’s narrative is epic for both the Arabs and the Berbers. It not only tells the story o f the heroism o f the Arabs, it tells that o f the Berbers as well. Small wonder that in this epic there is no room for other opinions.22 Behind the voice o f the protagonists, there is only the voice o f the community, and the Kahina speaks the language o f the Arabs. O ne can easily see that Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam’s account is significantly different from those we have previously examined. Many themes are new: the adoption o f Khâlid, the correspondence between Khâlid and Hassân, the Kahinas prediction o f the future, and last but not least, the protection accorded to her sons by Hassân, at her request. The account still maintains the same narrative structure as those o f Wâqidî, Ibn Khayyât, and Balâdhurî. Here again, the episode o f the Kahina is a story o f a quest. The initial situation, marked by disorder because o f the absence o f Islam, needed a hero able to remedy it and restore Islam. In this account, the first and the last states contrast. In the initial phase, Islam was halted in Ifnqiya by a female ruler; the final phase is that o f the realization o f Islam. The first state implies disorder; the second is clearly described as a phase o f order, because Hassân, we are told, built a mosque, established an administration, and applied the law o f God by imposing taxes on non-Muslims. Thus, this account too contains the myth o f the civilizing mission o f Islam, a myth that justifies the conquest o f other people and makes it appear not a domination o f men over men but o f God over men. In fact, in this account there is no opposition between Muslims and Berbers but rather between the Kahina, an infidel sorceress, and Hassân, a proxy o f the Caliph, who himself is a delegate o f God. Long before the final clash the Berbers, o f their own free will, join Hassân. In short, Hassân is the symbol o f Islam and the Kahina is the symbol o f the Jâhiliya. There is more, however, in this text. The new theme o f the Kahina asking her sons to join Hassân, before the battle, explains, in a radically different way, the conquest o f Ifnqiya. From the beginning, there was cooperation between the Berbers and the Muslims. This theme serves a myth which neither Wâqidî, nor Ibn Khayyât, nor Balâdhurî mentioned— it is the theme o f the origin o f the Berbers. In W âqidîs time, the Mus­ lim community was not aware o f the Berber presence. Only later, because o f their numerous revolts, was attention drawn to their presence, and the problem o f their origin raised. The inevitable solution was immediately

From Memory to History

9

found. It was this same solution that, in modern times, the French were to propound in N orth Africa and the European Christians in America. N othing seems easier than to integrate the new population into the larger com m unity by maintaining that this new population was originally, at the dawn o f time, from among “us.”23 Indeed, Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam writes: The Berbers were in Palestine. Their king was Jalut [Goliath]. He was killed by David, peace be upon him. They then left for the Maghrib.24 This solution is very convenient, because it also solves another serious and related problem. W hile integrating the new people, the conquerors (whether Arabs or Europeans) want by all means to keep their privileged situation as the noble, superior race. The others (in this case, the Berbers) were a part o f “us” in the past, so they are still a part o f us, but because o f the lapse o f time, they did not evolve in the right way. Thus they are inferior to “us.” T he Berbers emigrated from Palestine to the Maghrib. They were the last ones to receive the Prophetic message, and only re­ ceived it thanks to us. To reinforce their inferiority, other narratives are elaborated to confirm the degradation o f the Berbers.23 It is the m yth o f the Eastern origin o f the Berbers which explains, in Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam, the adherence o f the Berbers, including the sons o f the Kahina, to Islam. Thus, the legend was transformed significandy from a simple account articulating the myth o f the civilizing mission o f Islam to a more detailed account perpetuating, in addition to the first myth, the myth o f the Canaanite origin o f the Berbers. The myth o f the civilizing mission o f Islam alone no longer explained the conquest. It is now also explained by the Eastern origin o f the Berbers. T he Berbers are originally Easterners; they joined their brothers to accept Islam, by which also they were united to them. In the eleventh century, still other versions o f the story o f the Kahina existed. Bakri (1040-94),26 the geographer, wrote a book about cities and other places in N orth Africa. His book is a description o f places, and an account o f their inhabitants’ memories. He gives us the date o f 68/687 as the date o f the expedition o f Hassân. For him, the battle took place in Gabès. T he army o f the Kahina was headed by an ex-general o f Kusayla. Baler! reports the defeat o f Hassân and the capture o f his companions, including Khâlid whom the Kahina adopted. Hassân retreated to a place known as the castles o f Hassân (qusûr Hassân), on the way to Egypt. He then wrote to Caliph 'A bd al-Malik informing him about the situation. T h e Caliph asked him to stay where he was and wait for orders.27

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This narrative reported by Bakrî differs from the previous ones. The first clash, which is a test, is not between Hassan and the Kahina, an infidel woman, a sorceress, and so on, but between Hassan, a proxy o f the Caliph, and an old general o f Kusayla, now an anti-hero, representative o f the Kahina, competent given his rank and his experience. T he test that Hassân apparently could not overcome does not involve, at least not di­ rectly, a woman, but a man whose title and experience are equal to those o f Hassân. T he defeat o f Hassân is therefore not that problematic, because it is not caused by a woman, and it is after all only a divine test o f the will o f the hero. It is indeed this modality which is decisive in Muslim belief, because G od after all gives victory to those who believe in him. T he test, when one looks at it closely, was passed by Hassân because even in defeat he had kept faith, and he came back to affirm the will o f G od and to prove that he was entirely devoted to G ods service. O ne can read this test in two ways: on the axis o f being able to do, it shows the lack o f ability o f the hero; but being able to do is not a decisive modality anyway, because the only power is that o f God. O n the axis o f wanting to do, it shows, on the contrary, that the hero possesses this crucial modality, given that it determines victory; God guarantees success to those who are will­ ing to impose His word. Bakrî gives us the rest o f the account, but in fragments. W hile talking about the fortress o f Lajm, he tells us that it was the dwelling o f the Kahina, a place where she was besieged by her enemies, and that she then dug a subterranean passage through solid rock between the fortress and Salfat.28 A little further on, he tells us that the Kahina was killed at Tabarqa.29 And finally, much later on, when he talks about the Aurès, he reports that it was the abode o f the Kahina.30 In the text o f Bakrî, the victory o f Hassân, th at is, his glorifying test, is not essential. It rather the qualifying test which is crucial. T he reason is that in this history, the narrative o f the victory no longer explains anything, given that the victory has long been consecrated. It is rather the defeat o f Hassân by a woman th at poses problems for the com m unity o f believers. T he M uslim is superior to the non-M us­ lim, man to w om an, and yet it is the reverse th at happens in this situation. T he text o f Bakrî, com ing directly from these places o f M aghribi memory, offers a solution to this enigma o f a M uslim gen­ eral defeated by an infidel woman. T he defeat, a test, was caused by a man, him self a general, and him self com petent. A nother text, from the same century, by Mâlikî (d. 1058), a M aghribi biographer, also aims to solve this enigma, but in quite a different way.

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M âlikî draws from the w ritten as well as from the oral. His account is, at first glance, similar to that given by Ibn 'A bd al-H akam , b u t en­ riched w ith new themes. Like Bakrî, however, he m aintains th at 6 9 / 688 was the date o f the appointm ent o f Hassan by the C aliph 'A b d alMalik b. M arwân. T his decision was taken, M âlikî tells us, after con­ sultation w ith the M uslim nobility (ashrâf al-m uslim în). M âlikî also gives us the size o f the M uslim army, estim ated at six thousand men. Hassân attacked the Rûm (Byzantines) in a city called Tarshish on the coast, and another one called Satfûra. Defeated, the R ûm took refuge in Bajja, whereas the Berbers ran away to Bûna. Hassân then moved to Qayrawân, so that his com panions could rest and recover from their wounds. It is on the spatial level that this text is particularly significant. Unlike other narratives, where space is divided into the D âr al-Islâm and the Dâr al-Harb, Mâlikî introduces a particular division in the second. The Dâr al-Harb is not the space o f Ifnqiya in general, but only the space occupied by the Kahina. In fact, the actor, the Kahina, and the space are conjoined: each space occupied by the Kahina is a D âr al-Harb. Let us examine this. In his text, M âlikî tells us that it was in Qayrawân th at Hassân asked about the strongest king o f Ifrîqiya and he was told th at it was the Kahina, a woman who reigned over both Berbers and Rûm. H e then decided to attack her. T he Kahina heard o f Hassân’s intentions, and moved to Baghya. T hinking that Hassân w ould use Baghya as a base, she destroyed it. Hassân moved to W âdî M iknâsa, and approached the river to provide w ater for his army. T he Kahina did the same, and M âlikî tells us that Hassâns army took its position upstream {a'iâ alwâdt) whereas the Kahina and her arm y took theirs downstream (asfal al-w âdt). N ight was approaching when the two armies faced each other; Hassân w aited until m orning to proceed w ith the battle. T hus, for the first tim e, M âlikî specifies the place o f the battle, which is “W âdî M iknâsa.” After his stinging defeat, that day was known to the Arabs as “the day o f trial” (yawm al-balâ). As one can see, the space where the battle took place is divided along with the actors in the following manner: Upstream Dâr al-Islâm Hassân and his army

v. v. v.

Downstream Dâr al-Harb The Kahina and her army

12

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

In the Muslim imaginary, the "upper” position is reserved to the believ­ ers, those who overcome the test in the lowly world, those called al-m uflihûn, those who deserve salvation. By contrast, the "lower” position is reserved to the infidels, those who were not successful in the test, those who denied or did not follow the divine message, al-khâ’ibûn. T he relationship be­ tween the hero, Hassan, and the anti-hero, the Kahina, is vertical, generat­ ing the superiority o f the Muslims over the infidel. T he result o f the battle w ould give the impression that this relation is reversed. T he relation, how­ ever, is transcendental; even on the eve o f the battle, it points to the supremacy o f the Muslims. T he Muslim, whatever happens, is superior, as long as he is a believer.31 In any event, the text o f Mâlikî is rich in details. He gives some more im portant details. He describes the way Khâlid was adopted after the de­ feat o f Hassan. The Kahina prepared a Berber dish, known as basisa, which consisted o f toasted wheat mixed with oil, and asked her sons and Khâlid to eat it together. After they did, she declared them brothers. W hen the Kahina was defeated in the second battle, she was not killed immediately, but was able to flee, taking w ith her a huge wooden idol (sanam m in khashab) which she worshiped. Before the final clash, Mâlikî reports a whole dialogue between the Kahina and Khâlid. She told her sons that she would be killed and that she saw her head being taken on horses to the O rient, and exhibited to the king o f the Arabs. Khâlid suggested that she would flee the country, but the Kahina proudly answered: "How? I am a queen, and kings do not flee death. [If I were to do so] I would inflict shame ( 'âr) upon my people for the rest o f tim e.” She then asked them to leave and join Hassân, knowing that they would all achieve suc­ cess with the Arabs. O ther im portant information about the Kahina in this account is related to her physiology. Mâlikî informs us that when the Kahina was killed, the Arabs were surprised by the structure o f her body. A lemon rolled from her buttocks to her shoulders (kânat al-utrujja tajrt bayna 'ajîzatihâ wa katifayhâ).32 In the eleventh century, one can find more than one version o f the story o f the Kahina, which is proof that there was no one written model for the story. Furthermore, the writing was dependent on the oral tradi­ tion, whose salient charateristic is the production o f diverse accounts. A narrative has little chance o f changing when it has a written model, whereas an oral tradition is constantly changing in the absence o f one.33 T he leg­ end indeed seems to be in constant transformation. T he oral tradition was constantly providing new themes for the writtten accounts. At the same time, however, the legend has its own written tradition. And in these

From M emory to History

13

w ritten accounts, one can easily detect the influence o f folklore on the legend. From Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam onwards, the story o f the Kahina is clearly marked by the theme o f sorcery, a theme com m on in narratives o f all societies. Mâlikî exaggerates this theme. In Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam, the Kahina predicts the future and has different forms— she is a fighter and a m other as well as a sorceress. As in some N orth African folktales, the Kahina has two sons and adopts a third one. Even the way she adopts Khalid is a them e o f M editerranean folklore. Van G ennep tells us, though w ithout giving any examples, that a woman adopting the hero by giving him her breast is a well-known folkloric theme in the M editerranean.34 Even the descriptions o f the Kahinas body are known themes from folktales.33 A sorceress is known by her long hair, which signifies magical power.36 She also screams while announcing visions. A sorceress is also recognized by her great physical weight. T he Kahina, as reported by Mâlikî, surprised the Arabs w ith her heaviness. Finally, the sorceress lives on the border o f the other world or in glass mountains. T he Kahina, as Bakrî tells us, dwelt in the mountains. In Berber belief the mountains were known, from ancient times, to be a seat o f gods and demons, and a place which inspired fear and terror.37 It is notew orthy th a t neither Ibn 'A bd al-H akam n o r M âlikî were the creators o f these themes. T h e oral tradition about the K ahina con­ tained m any them es, integrated into the oral trad itio n w ith the con­ sent o f the com m unity. As Rom an Jakobson has shown, it is by the agreem ent o f the com m unity th at a them e becomes functional in the trad itio n .38 T h e them es w hich are n o t accepted, because o f the censure préventive de la com m unauté, disappear for good. T he them es th at exist in the oral tradition are, in fact, integrated w ith the consent o f the com m unity. T h u s a folkloric them e is n ot the creation o f an individual b u t o f a group. C reation in folklore is different from th at in literature. In literature, a w ork is created w hen it is p u t dow n in w riting by the author, whereas in folklore a them e or a “folkloric fact” is born only w hen the com m unity accepts it. T he com m unity accepts a them e w hen it responds to a certain condition, to a certain need.39 In our case, the historian does n ot create these themes; he only reports them for the task o f the author o f the târîkh is to report, often textually, by m en­ tioning the event and its date. T his is why there is no such thing as plagiarism in târîkh. At the end o f the tw elfth century, the account o f the K ahina was still in the process o f construction. D ifferent versions were still appear­ ing in the historiography, containing them es th at we do n o t find in the

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versions o f the historians o f the eleventh and tw elfth centuries. By this tim e, the history o f N orth Africa had become a M aghribi monopoly. T he M ashriqis, though pioneers o f this historiography, became depen* d en t on the M aghribi accounts. W hen Ibn al-Athîr undertook to w rite his version o f the episode o f the Kahina, he reported a M aghribi ver­ sion sim ilar to that o f M âlikî, giving it particular credit (because the ow ner o f the house knows it better, as he p u t it). As an O riental, and because the W âqidî tradition was still extant, he reported th at as well, b u t only in an ancillary way. Ibn al-Athîr tells us th at the Kahina was nam ed the Kahina because she used to predict the future. But the most im portant detail in Ibn al-Athîr s account is the destruction o f the land by the Kahina. W hen Hassân moved to attack her, Ibn al-A thîr goes on, the Kahina told her people that the Arabs w anted only gold and silver whereas she and her people lived in the fields and the meadows. She then ordered her followers to destroy the land. T his was the first destruction o f Ifnqiya, according to Ibn al-Athîr.40 T his is the first d e a r m ention o f the destruction o f Ifrîqiya, w hich Ibn al-A thîr prob­ ably took from M aghribi historiography. Let us at this p o in t examine it. T h e them e is not as new as it appears. In fact, it was already im ­ plicit in the account o f W âqidî. T he misrule o f the Kahina led to the creation o f a state o f disorder that made Jihâd obligatory. By the end o f the thirteenth century, the them e was made more explicit in the account o f Ibn al-Athîr, and at the same tim e was exaggerated.41 T he them e o f the anti-hero’s destruction o f a prosperous and peaceful coun­ try is also a very ancient theme o f folklore,42 common in Berber folktales. For instance, in one Berber folktale, the anti-hero is a w om an, the m other o f a tribe. T he tale goes like this: At first their mother Settat used to be seen running about with her three children in a piece of land which is desert to this day, devouring people and feeding her children on human flesh. No one knew where she came from; she was known of no male, ogre or human, and this afterwards occasioned the saying that the Awlad Settat had no father. After devastating the country for many years, she suddenly disappeared and was never seen again. But her chil­ dren remained in the desert, and were the ancestors of the present Awlad Settat.43 It is worth mentioning, however briefly, the universal folkloric elements common to both this tale and the legend. The witch is usually surrounded by her sons, whose number is usually three (the third is usually adopted,

From M emory to History

15

and his adoption usually happens in the same way— through suckling; these elements are not m entioned in the Berber tale). She is also an agent o f transformation, creating destruction and spreading terror. She is above all a woman o f unknown origins. It is this last characteristic which re­ mained inherent in the legend o f the Kahina, making the “alteration,”44 an essential characteristic o f memory, effective. W henever the context changes, the figure o f the Kahina is altered; that is, it is transformed and integrates other folkloric elements.

M edieval H istoriography T hus far, I have intentionally excluded an account that contains most o f the elements o f the legend I have discussed hitherto. This account was presumably written at the beginning o f the eleventh century, and my analysis o f it leads me to rethink my hypothesis regarding the construction o f the legend. T he account is a part o f a book entitled Târîkh Ifrtqiya wa alMagbrib, attributed to the M aghribi historian Ibn al-Raqîq (d. 1027-28), but most probably he didn’t write it.451 argue, however, that the book was written in the thirteenth century because it is only after the account o f Ibn al-Athir that the story o f the Kahina integrated the themes that one finds in the book attributed to Ibn al-Raqîq. T he reverse hypothesis would be that the story already acquired most o f its themes in the eleventh century. This hypothesis does not stand, howver, because neither Mâlikî nor Bakrî mentions the very im portant theme o f the destruction, a theme that has been systematically reported since Ibn al-Athîr. Some new details appear, however: the W âdî Bili (N înî in Ibn al-Athîr) is mentioned as being eigh­ teen miles away from Baghya. Khâlid asks the Kahina w ith surprise how she could adopt him when there is no milk in her breast. W hen Hassan asks the messenger to return, the latter responds that he was afraid to do so because the woman was a kâhinaJ*6 T he author o f the Târîkh gives another new detail, the names o f the sons o f the Kahina. According to him, one o f them was named “Qudayyir,” the other “Yamîn.” Another thirteenth-century historian, 'U bayd Allah b. Sâlih, gives us two different names— Ifrân and Zaydân.47 In the ninth century, many places m entioned in the account were nameless. Gradually, however, the places were designated by names. In like manner, there was a need in the thirteenth century to fill in the blanks o f the legend by giving names to all its actors. But here again differences are found, proving, if needed, that the legend was not yet fixed once and for all by writing. There is still no consensus on the date, and even the name o f the location

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Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

o f the first clash is not the same in each o f these accounts. For 'U bayd Allâh b. Salih* the place is called W âdî Tarda, whereas for the author o f the Târîkh, it is “W âdî Miskyâna” which since that day has been called “W âdî al-'Adhârâ” or “W âdî al-Bala.” D uring this century other factors emerged to strengthen the need for the myth o f the Berber origin. T he myth was reinforced by social tension in Andalusia which pitted Berbers against Arabs.48 During the fourteenth century, other factors emerged to make the need for this myth more press­ ing than ever. Berber dynasties were no longer drawing their legitimacy from holy war in the path o f Islam, but also needed to appropriate an Arab genealogy, more particularly 'Alid. It is in this century that the themes o f the legend were completed once and for all. Nuwayrî49 (1279-1332) reported the same account as the M aghribi historians, even though he does not describe the scene o f the adoption, or the date o f the beginning o f the conquest, and the river is not called M iknâsa bu t N în î.50 T îjânî (born between 1272 and 1276), a traveler, has one more detail to add to this tradition. According to him , when the Kahina was besieged in the Castle o f Jâm (H isn al-Jâm), her sister used to provide her w ith food through a tunnel. But T îjânî makes no m ention o f the captivity o f Khâlid, even though he talks about the Kahina’s order to her sons to join the enemy.91 T h a t is to say, though the them e o f the adoption is quite prom inent, it does n o t appear in all the accounts o f the thirteenth-century historians. W hen the m o tif o f the captivity and the adoption o f Khâlid appears, it is presented to explain the later m o tif o f the Berbers joining the Arabs by order o f the Kahina herself. But the first m o tif is n ot really necessary to the second. It is quite acceptable to m aintain th at the sons joined the Arabs only because the m other asked them to do so. T he help o f Khâlid is no t necessary. W here the Khâlid m o tif is included, it serves to enrich the narrative. In any case, we may find a historian who simply borrows the whole account from another, textually, and w ithout m etioning his name. Here again, some slight differences may occur. Dabbâgh (d. 1297) gives us alm ost the whole narrative o f M âlikî, and, aside from stylistic dif­ ferences, distinguishes him self from M âlikî by reporting th at Hassân had been w aiting in Barqa for the Caliph’s reinforcements for three years, whereas M âlikî says five.52 It was during this century that a literary genre known as the m aßkhir flourished. Its purpose was to restore a positive image o f the Berbers by relating them to an Arab origin and showing their noble qualities.53 For at that time, the Berbers themselves, as Ibn Khaldûn tells us, adopted the Arab view o f themselves, looking askance at their own “race.” An anony-

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mous author o f m aßkhir, while stating the aim o f his book, describes to us the prevailing image o f the Berbers: Seeing that the Berbers were considered by most people as the lowest o f the nations, the most ignorant, the most deprived o f virtues, I have decided to evoke their kings in Islam, their chiefs, their rebels, their genealogists, some o f their illustrious people, and their history.54 W hen Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) undertook to write the story o f the Kahina, he already had a long tradition to use.55 However, he ignored W âqidîs account which was absorbed in the M aghribi tradition. Ibn Khaldûn made a complete synthesis, integrating all the themes we have discussed, and adding two more details about the Kahina. Ibn Khaldûns book, A l- 'Ibar, is ostensibly an apologia for the Berbers who had suffered from the degrading Arab view o f them; in fact, his work is in the m aß kh ir genre. Maya Shatzmiller, who studied the themes o f the fourteenth-century historiography, writes: The 'Ibar is only a more comprehensive [examination] o f the theme of m aßkhi. If you will, it would be the most profoundly intelli­ gent and magnificent realization of the aim that the author of m aßkhi sets for himself in rough terms contrary to all the authors of the 14th-century— to prove the glory o f the Berbers through their history.56 Ibn Khaldûns defense o f the Berbers is dear; he praises their qualities, including them among the greatest nations on earth, like the Arabs, the Romans, the Persians, and the Greeks. H e writes that the history o f the Berbers, including the bravery o f the Kahina, reveals: The strength [they have shown] through time, that they inspired fear; they are brave and powerful comparable to other nations and peoples of the world such as the Arabs, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans.57 W hile talking about the genealogy o f the Berbers, Ibn Khaldûn takes a position in the debate over the origin o f the Berbers, a position which in fact is that o f the N orth African school o f historiography: The truth which should be accepted regarding the origin of the Berbers is that they are descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, son

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o f Noah, as indicated in the presentation o f the genealogies o f men since the Creation. The name o f their ancestor is Mazigh; the Kerethetes [Arqîsh] and the Philistines were their brothers; their brothers, Casluhim, son o f Mizraim, son of Ham. Their king Jalut [Goliath] is well known as one of their kings. There were wellknown wars between the Philistines and the Children o f Israel in Syria. The Canaanites and the Kerethetes were allies of the Philis­ tines. This is what one must believe, because it is the truth that one must not ignored8 Ibn Khaldûn, like his Maghribi contemporaries, linked the Berbers to an Eastern origin.59 This origin explains the episode o f the Kahina in his account. Here again, the Berbers were united w ith their brothers from the East, thanks to Islam. As for the resistance o f the Kahina, Ibn Khaldûn is the first to link it to the great deeds o f the Berbers. T he Kahinas fight symbolizes the bravery o f the Berbers; that is to say, the Berbers showed proof o f courage and bravery before they accepted Islam. We are indeed far from the early accounts which made the realization o f the conquest exclusively the deed o f Hassân, who was accomplishing a mission assigned to him by the Caliph o f God. In Ibn Khaldûns account, as in those o f his contemporaries, the conquest o f the M aghrib was achieved w ith the con­ sent, if not the cooperation, o f the Berbers. Ibn Khaldûn also provides some details to complete the picture, or make more explicit some elements o f the legend. T he Kahina, in his opinion, used to be told things by her demons. It is noteworthy that Ibn Khaldûn mentions a detail that does not change the meaning o f the account o f the Kahina in his text, but later catches on. It is related to the religion o f the Kahina. W hile discussing the religions o f the Berbers in their pre-Islamic period, Ibn Khaldûn mentions the Jrâwa among the Berber tribes who professed Judaism: It is possible that some of these Berbers professed Judaism that they took from the Children of Israel when their kingdom ex­ tended and thus became near to Syria. This was the case o f the population of the Awrâs mountains, the tribe o f the Kahina who was killed by the Arabs early on during the conquests. This was also the case o f the Naffusa, a Berber tribe from Ifnqiya, the Qandalâwa, the Madyûna, the Bahlûla, the Ghiyata, and the Banû Fazzân, a tribe of the Berbers of the far Maghrib.60 Ibn Khaldûn also gives, for the first time, a genealogy o f the Kahina. She is called Dihya bint Tâbita b. N îqân b. Bâwrâ b. Maskisrî b. Afrad b.

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Wasîla b. Jrâw.61 Ibn Khaldûn also reports new information supplied by a Berber genealogist named H âni’ b. Bakkûr al-Darsî: "the Kahina ruled the Berbers for thirty-five years, and lived one hundred and twenty-seven years.”62 Ibn Khaldûn makes it dear that the Kahina plotted the killing o f 'U qba b. N âfi' by inciting the Tahûda tribe to attack him. He gives 69/ 688 as the date o f the first attack by Hassân, and 74/693 as the date o f the second. He locates the first battle in W âdî Miskyâna. W ith Ibn Khaldûn, all the themes relating to the episode are gathered together. After Ibn Khaldûn, no other historian added any element to this narrative tradition, though some elements may have been dropped in sub­ sequent narratives. In fact, also in the fourteenth century, we find an account which explicidy combines the episode o f the Kahina and the myth o f the Arab origin o f the Berbers.63 W hen Hassân b. al-N u'm ân reached the Aurès m oun­ tains, he faced the Zenata tribes, who were ready to fight him. Hassân asked them to adhere to Islam, reminding them that the Berbers and Arabs were brothers because they shared the same ancestor, namely Barr b. Qays 'Aylân. The Berbers then converted, and the Berber and Arab groups agreed to write a testimony to their common origin, a testimony which gave them the right to inherit from each other. O ne can see that the episode is that o f the Kahina, even though she does not appear. Unlike Ibn Khaldûn, who narrates the resistance o f the Kahina and considers it one o f the great deeds o f the Berbers, this account maintains that from the first, the Berbers and the Arabs, already unified by their common origin, were again bound to each other by Islam. In other words, the conquest o f N orth Africa was more than a mutual accep­ tance, it was something imposed on the Berbers, not by force o f arms, but by obligation o f kinship. Neither Ibn 'Idhârî in the fourteenth century64 nor Ibn Abî D înâr in the seventeenth century65 changed or added anything to the account. In­ stead they both reported the same version as Ibn Khaldûn.

The M emory o f H istory From the eleventh century onwards, the legend o f the Kahina in classi­ cal N orth African historiography contains, in addition to the myth o f the civilizing mission o f Islam, the myth o f the origin o f the Berbers. Both myths sought to integrate N orth Africa into the larger Muslim community and raise the Berbers to the level o f the Arabs. In the nineteenth century, this mythology lost none o f its vitality. Indeed, with the passage o f time,

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this mythology had become firmly rooted in Muslim N orth African imagi­ nary. N orth Africans in the pre-colonial period considered themselves a part o f the Muslim world, even when the rest o f this Muslim world was no longer Arab. At the same time, they resented being viewed as marginal, as a “tail,” to use an expression which goes back at least to the fourteenth century.66 In the nineteenth century, Ibn Diyâf (d. 1874) and Nâsirî (d. 1897) wrote histories o f their respective countries, Tunisia and Morocco— not the Maghrib— which they link to the Arab Middle East. Both historians begin their histories elsewhere, in the East, w ith the birth o f the Prophet and the advent o f Islam, and tie these events to the conquest o f N orth Africa. In Ibn Diyâf,67 the legend o f the Kahina is basically the one we find in Ibn Khaldûn, but Ibn D iyâf ignores the details which make the legend appear like a representative o f a fantastic literary genre— the adoption o f Khâlid, the correspondence between Khâlid and Hassân, the prediction o f the future. Ibn Diyâf, a modern historian, wants to make his account appear “rational.” Indeed, nothing in his account makes a modern reader smile or raise his eyebrows. Hassân attacked Ifrîqiya in 79/698, conquer­ ing and destroying Carthage. He was defeated by the Kahina and took refuge in Barqa. T he Kahina, thinking that the Arabs were seeking to appropriate the country’s goods, ordered Barqa’s inhabitants to destroy their town. They obediently carried out her order. Five years later, when the Caliph dispatched reinforcements, Hassân attacked and killed the Kahina. He then appointed her sons as rulers over the Berber converts. Nâsirî also gives us a similar account in which he systematically quotes Ibn Khaldûn.68 Nâsirî asks the same question that Ibn Diyâf probably had in m ind when writing about this episode. In a chapter o f his Istiqsâ, he poses the question: “A controversy o f the Ulema regarding the Maghrib: was it conquered by force ( 'anwa), or by a treaty (sulh) or by other means?” Nâsirî first relates some contradictory views; he dismisses the opinion that the Maghrib was conquered solely by force. He rather adopts the view that it was conquered partly by force and partly by treaty. However, he does mention the opinion that it was taken by treaty only. He concludes by reporting, w ithout refuting, this opinion which goes back to Shaykh Abû Jayda, according to whom the Maghrib accepted Islam, and thus was not taken by force. Nâsirî corroborates his own opinion by reference to the episode o f the Kahina. He too leaves aside the obvious folkloric themes o f the legend, except for the details that he takes from Ibn Khaldûn regarding the de-

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mons o f the Kahina who inspired her. The Berbers were angry about the Kahina’s scorched earth policy, and joined the Arabs. Therefore, at this point the Maghrib was taken by a treaty. Then Hassan attacked the Kahina in 74/693 and conquered the Aurès mountains by force (iqtahama al-jabal 'anwatan).69 By the late nineteenth century, when Ibn D iy if was writing his Ithâf, Algeria had already fallen, and Tunisia was succumbing to European at­ tempts to control it and soon fell under French domination. Only Mo­ rocco still maintained a certain autonomy when Nâsirî was writing his Istiqsâ, but increasingly the European threat hung over him. Nâsirî was very concerned, and expressed deep anxieties.70 T he power o f hum an imagination, Franz Boas says, is very limited; people keep using the same old stock o f imaginary events.71 In this new context, the two historians again took up the same legend, getting rid o f its most obviously fantastic elements, to articulate the same old Islamic mythology.72 T he aim is to show the specificity o f Tunisia and Morocco, respectively. The origins are Islamic, hence the narration o f the advent o f Islam in the O rient as well as in the Maghrib, but the identity is Tunisian or Moroccan. In other words, both historians sought to show that their subject, Tunisia for Ibn Diyâf, Morocco for Nâsirî, was rooted in the O rient, and yet had its own specificity. The two historians are concerned, in the face o f the expansion o f the colonial enterprise and the rise o f its own mythology, to not present their country as an Arab colony. Each o f them portrays his country as independent, as having its own history which accepted Islam not by force but through a treaty dictated by the common origin o f both Arabs and Berbers. T he legend o f the Kahina was not born full-fledged as was Athena from the head o f Zeus in Greek mythology, but was constructed gradually through time and in various places. I have pursued the making o f the legend from its first appearance in the ninth century up to the nineteenth century, and showed how it was progressively formed, drawing systematically from a social memory which had been itself in the process o f complete transfor­ mation. From the beginning one can see that as with any narrative o f war, the story o f the Kahina was written in different versions and was subject to the influence o f folklore. T he story was certainly a part o f the oral tradi­ tion before it was appropriated by historiography. It was an unforgettable event for those from both groups who participated in the battle, as well as for those who did not. T he event was o f great importance for all o f them, and its story not only tells about the fight o f a female ruler, but also explains the radical change that occurred at that time.

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From the first, one can see that there are significant differences in themes, in dates, in places, in names. All these differences testify to the oral origin o f the legend. O ne cannot tell exactly when the legend was first appropri­ ated by historiography; our first text, that o f W âqidî, is certainly not the first manifestation o f the event in writing. But W âqidîs account attests that the event was no longer a monopoly o f oral tradition in the ninth century, but was being appropriated by historiography. In other words, the legend was a part o f the memory o f social groups (Berbers and Arabs), as well as the memory o f historians.73 T he two kinds o f memory are not really opposed; they only function differently.74 In this case, social memory has fed historiography for centuries. At the same time, historiography de­ fies the "shortness o f memory,” to use Joseph C onrads expression. W hen historiography borrows a theme from oral tradition, the theme is no longer likely to be forgotten, but is henceforth part o f the memory o f history. It is very possible that other themes, other versions o f the legend that were not taken up by historiography, were lost forever once they lost their func­ tion. But W âqidî s account is still alive even though it lost its function in the ninth century, and was ignored by almost all subsequent historians. In fact, from the ninth century onwards, the Muslim community was aware o f what ought to be called the "Berber Q uestion.” Thus, the ac­ count o f W âqidî no longer responded to the exigency o f the social tension o f the Maghrib, a tension created by the encounter o f two groups that everything combined to place in mutual opposition. T he Arabs were the masters o f a new land, and their attitude must have reflected this; the Berbers were once again dominated, forced to live in their own home under the rule o f unwelcome strangers. Protests, clashes, and challenges occurred frequently with the aim o f ending this state. It was to lessen this tension that the myth o f Berber acceptance o f Islam was created. This myth made N orth Africa Muslim through the work o f both Arabs and Berbers. To explain the adherence o f the Berbers to Islam, their coopera­ tion and their consent, another myth was created— the myth o f the East­ ern origin o f the Berbers. This myth also had another function. It helped the integration o f the Berbers into the Muslim community. It is this my­ thology which we find in Ibn 'A bd al-Hakams account. This account contains many o f the folkloric themes. The most im portant is the Kahinas adoption o f Khalid, which dramatizes the attitude o f the Kahina: accept­ ing Islam, vaguely but decisively, and then making Islam the choice for her sons. The sons were already on the Arab side before the last clash. T hat is to say, the Berbers not only accepted Islam but themselves actively partici­ pated in making N orth Africa Muslim.

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Ibn 'A bd al-Hakam marks the starting point o f Maghribi historiogra­ phy. Subsequent historians, such as Mâlikî, 'Ubayd Allah b. Sâlih, Ibn 'Idhârî, and Ibn Khaldûn, would develop and enrich his account with elements from folklore. T he account remains basically the same, but since the legend was not complete, and especially since the rich oral tradition was still alive, historiography could not ignore it. In Arabic Islamic cul­ ture, orality and writing are actually twin brothers; historians do not hesi­ tate to take from oral tradition. Furthermore, it was always the oral tradition that constituted a source o f writing. Geographers and travelers in particular describe places and recall their memory. Themes were there­ fore added or integrated, whether to stress a myth, to respond to the aesthetic taste o f a group, or simply to tell the same legend differently so as to vary a story for a public which had heard it before. In the thir­ teenth century, to stress the myth o f the acceptance o f Islam by the Berbers, Ibn al-Athîr not only tells us that the Berbers joined Hassân, but also explains why. To do this, he makes explicit by exaggeration a theme that had always been implicit in the legend since its first appear­ ance in W âqidî, that is, the theme o f the destruction o f the country. The legend was completed only in the fourteenth century by Ibn Khaldûn, who provides us with the last new details. Still, the mythology remained the same. W ith the passage o f time it became firmly entrenched in the Maghribi Muslim imaginary, and the factors behind its emergence and development were still at work in N orth African societies in the nine­ teenth century. A serious attempt, however, was made by the French to rework it during the colonial period.

Notes 1. Bloch, “Réflexions d’un historien sur les fausses rumeurs de la guerre.” 2. Ibn al-Athîr, Al-kâm il f l al-târîkh (Beirut: 1965), vol. IV, p. 371. 3. Khalîfa ibn Khayyât al-'Usfûri, Târîkh Khalifa Ibn Khayyât, cd. Akram Diyâ’ al-'Umrî (Najaf: Dâr al-âdâb, 1967), vol. II. 4. Ibid., p. 213. 5. Ibid., p. 264. 6. Ibid., p. 267. 7. Balâdhurî, Futûh al-buldân, ed. Radwân Muhammad Radwân (Cairo: Mataba al-tijâriya al-kubrâ, 1959), p. 228. English translation in Philip Khûri Hitti, The Origins o f the Islamic State (New York: Columbia University, 1916), vol. I, p. 360. 8. A. J. Greimas and J. Courtès write: “Among the Proppian functions, lack—associated with the ’misdeed,’ which produces a lack through the efforts

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of a villain from outside—occupies a central place in the unfolding o f the narrative; for, as Propp himself said, this is what gives the tale its movement: the departure of the hero, the quest, and the victory will indeed make it possible for the lack to be fulfilled and the misdeed rectified.” Sémiotique, dictionnaire mitonné de la théorie du langage (Paris: Hachette, 1979). English translation, Semiotics and Language, by Larry Crist et al. (Bloomington: Indi­ ana University Press, 1982) p. 169. 9. For a general view see E. Tyan, art. “Jihad," in Encyclopedia o f Islam, second edition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986) (EI2), vol. 2, pp. 538; C. L. Cahen, art. “Harb-ii. The Caliphate,” in Encyclopedia o f Islam, second edition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986) (EI2), vol. 3, pp. 181-84; also M. Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law o f Islam (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1955), pp. 55-73. 10. Bay'a refers to the act by which the authority o f a person is recognized. See E. Tyan, art. “Bay'a,” in Encyclopedia o f Islam, second edition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986) (£72), vol. 1, pp. 113-14. 11. Laroui, L’histoire. 12. M. Talbi, L’émirat Aghlabide (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1966). 13. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futûh misr wa al-maghrib, ed. Charles C. Torrey (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1920). 14. Ibrâhim Adawî, Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam (Cairo: Maktabat al-anjlu al-Misriya, 1963), pp. 134-35. 15. M. Bakhtin, “The Polyphonic Novel,” in Problems o f Dostoevsky’s Poet­ ics, translated from Russian by R. W. Rotsel (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 1973). 16. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futûh, p. 198. 17. Ibid., p. 199. 18. For Bakhtin, a polyphonic novel, such as Dostoevsky’s, is a novel with many voices. The characters express their own points of view, not those o f the author. This, however, cannot be the case for the historian who is a “judge” as Paul Ricoeur tells us: “He is put in a real or potential situation of contest and tends to prove that such explanation is better than another.” P. Ricoeur, “L’intentionnalité historique,” in Temps et récit (Paris: Seuil, 1983), vol. 1, p. 247. 19. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futûh, p. 201. 20. Ibid., pp. 200-201. 21. F. Rosenthal, Muslim Historiography (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), pp. 3 1 36 and 54-65. 22. Bakhtin writes: “The epic world knows only a single and unified world view, obligatory and indubitably true for heroes as well as authors and audi­ ences. Neither worldview nor language can, therefore, function as factors for limiting and determining human images, or their individualization. In the epic, characters are bound, preformed, individualized by their various situa­ tions and destinies, but not by varying ‘truths.’ Not even the gods are sepa-

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25

rated from men by a special truth: they have the same language, they all share the same world view, the same late, the same extravagant externalization” (M. Bakhtin, “Epic and Novel,” in The Dialogic Imagination, translated from Rus­ sian by C. Emerson and Michael Holquist [Austin: University o f Texas Press, 1981], p. 35). 23. Maya Shatzmiller writes: “There are in general three affiliations: the first one, the most frequent, claims the Berbers to be originally from Palestine. They were chased to N orth Africa after the death o f Jalut who belongs to the Arab tribe o f Mudar. The second one sees the Berbers as descended from Cham son o f Noah, born in N orth Africa after the exile o f the latter. The third one grants several Berber tribes a Himyarite South­ ern Arabic origin.” “Le mythe d’origine Berbère, aspects historiques et sociaux,” in Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Mediteranée, vol. 35, 1983, p. 147. 24. Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, Futûh, p. 170. 25. Talbi, L’émirat Aghlabide, pp. 18—21. 26. Bakrî, Kitâb al-maghrib f i dhikr bilâd ifrîqiya wa al-maghrib, text edited and translated by Mac Guckin De Slane under the title, Description de l A ’ frique septentrionale (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1965), pp. 199203. TJ. Ibid., p. 7; p. 22 for the French translation. 28. Ibid., p. 30, p. 69 for the French translation. 29. Ibid., p. 57; p. 121 for the French translation. 30. Ibid., p. 144; p. 277 for the French translation. 31. “Thus spoke God after the defeat of the companions o f the Prophet in the battle of Uhud, ‘Faint not, neither sorrow; you shall be the upper ones if you are believers.’” Arthur J. Arbeny, The Koran Interpreted (London: Hertford and Harlow, 1955), Sourate III, v. 139, p. 90. For an analysis of the mihna (test) in Islam, see Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, Naqd al-Fikr al-D ini (Beirut: 1969), pp. 89-110. 32. Ibid., p. 36. The meaning of this sentence is ambiguous. Does it mean that the Kahina was so fleshy that a lemon would roll from her buttocks to her shoulders when she was lying flat on her face? 33. J. Goody, The Interface between the Written and the Oral (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987). 34. A. Van Gennep, La formation des légendes (Paris: Flammarion, 1910), pp. 47—48. 35. I am drawing this parallel from S. Thompson, Motif-Index o f FolkLiterature (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1956), vol. III. 36. The hair o f the Kahina is not only a symbol o f magical power, but it is also both a symbol o f aggression and an act o f aggression in itself. See, for the symbolic significance o f hair, E. R. Leach, “Magical Hair,” Journal o f the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 88, part. II, July-D ecember 1958, pp. 147-64.

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37. R. Basset, "Berbers and North Africa,” in Encyclopedia o f Religion and Ethics, 1910, vol. II, pp. 506-7. 38. R. Jakobson “Le folklore, forme spécifique de création,” in Questions de poétique, edited by T. Todorov (Paris: Seuil, 1973), pp. 59-73. 39. It is the famous horizon d ’a ttente developed later by H. R. Jauss, in Pour une esthétique de ¡a réception, translated from German by C. Maillard (Paris: Gallimard, 1978), pp. 50-51. 40. The second is supposedly in the eleventh century by the Banû Hilâl: see below, pp. 106-7. 41. A. Sebti, "Sur la signification de la ruine,” in Histoire et linguistique (Rabat: University Mohammed V Press, 1992), pp. 11—25. Among other mean­ ings that Sebti adduces is one noted in Lisân al-'arab that the takhrib is fasâd f i al-dtn (corruption of religion). Sebti explores the theme o f the kharâb in all medieval historiography, and maintains that the kharâb, the ruin, is only a metaphor, and that in medieval historiography the kharâb is followed by the 'um rân (civilization). 42. V. Propp, Les origines historiques du conte, translated from Russsian by Lise Gruel-Apert (Paris: Gallimard, 1983). B. Malinowski also mentions in the case o f the Trobrianders the story o f "an ogre devastating gardens.” See his “Myth in Primitive Psychology” in Magic, Science and Religion (New York: Anchor Books, 1954), p. 104. 43. Basset, “Berbers,” p. 513. 44. M. de Certeau, L’invention du quotidien (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), pp. 131-32. 45. Ibn al-Raqîq (attrib.), Târîkh Ifrîqiya wa al-Maghrib, ed. al-Ka'bî Munjî, (Tunis: 1968). 46. Talbi does not think that the book is was written by Ibn al-Raqîq, and considers that it was written later. Talbi compares the Târîkh with the Bayân o f Ibn Tdhârî, and concludes that in addition to the mediocrity of the form, the Târîkh does not contain anything which can shed light on the Kahina, and that all the information it provides is already known. M. Talbi, "Un nouveau fragment de l’histoire de l’Occident musulman (62-196/682-812). L’épopée de la Kahina,” in Cahiers de la Tunisie, no. 73, 1971, pp. 19-52. 47. 'Ubayd Allah b. Sâlih, "La conquête de l’Afrique du Nord,” ed. £. Lévi-Provençal, Revue de l ’Institut d ’Etudes Islamiques de Madrid, 1954. For a French translation by Lévi-Provençal with an introduction, see Arabica, vol. I, 1954, pp. 17-34. 48. J. Monroe, The Shu'ûbiyya in al-Andalus (Los Angeles: University of California Publications, 1970), pp. 1-22. 49. Nuwayrî, Târîkh al-gharb al-islamî (min kitâb nihâyat al-adab f i fitnûn al-adab), ed. Mustafâ Abû Dayf Ahmad (Casablanca: 1985), pp. 196-99. 50. According to Yâqût, Nînî is a river in the fin Ifrîqiya. Mâlikî, instead, mentions Miknâsa, which Talbi thinks is an incorrect rendering of Miskyâna. Miskyâna is today near a railway station o f the same name; it is situated,

From Memory to History

27

according to Talbi, 16 km. to the south of Ai-Beida on the railway line to Khenchela. Talbi, “L’épopée de la Kahina,” pp. 23-35. 51. Tîjânî, Rihla, ed. Hasan Hasani 'Abd al-Wahhâb (Tunis: 1958), p. 57. 52. 'Abd al-Rahmân Dabbâgh, M a'âlim al-imân f i m a'rifat ahl-qayrawân (Cairo: 1968), vol. I, pp. 45-63. 53. Maya Shatzmiller, ¡.’historiography M irinide, Ibn Khaldun et ses contemporains (Leiden: £. J. Brill, 1982). Also her article, “Le mythe d’origine Berbère, aspects historiographiques et sociaux,” pp. 145-56. 54. M aßrikh al-barbar, Fragments historiques sur les Berbères au Moyen-Age. Extraits inédit d ’un recueil anonyme compilé en 712/1312), ed. E. Lévi-Provençal (Rabat: F. Mûshû, 1934). 55. Ibn Khaldûn, Kitâb al-'ibar wa dîwân al-mubtada’ wa al-khabar f i ayyâm al-'and» wa al-'ajam wa al-barbar wa man 'âsarahum min dhawi alsultân al-akbar (Beirut: 1959). For a partial French translation, see A. Cheddadi, Peuples et nations du monde (Paris: Sindbad, 1986), 2 vols. 56. Shatzmiller, L’historiographie, p. 132. 57. Ibn Khaldûn, Kitâb, vol. VI, p. 206. 58. Ibid., vol. I, pp. 191-92. 59. Except for the Sanahâja and Kutâma who, in the view of Ibn Khaldûn and his contemporaries, are originally Arab, of Yemeni origin, the Berbers are descendants of the Canaanites. The Iberian school, whose eloquent spokes­ man is Ibn Hazm, gives a significant version of the origin of the Berbers. In fret, it is opposed to the Maghribi one, reflecting the high tension between Arabs and Berbers in Andalusia. The Berbers, though they are of Canaanite origin, are related to the Yemenites only by the narratives of the Yemeni historians. See Ibn Hazm, Jamharatansâb al-'arab, ed. E. Lévi-Provençal (Cairo: Dâr al-ma'ârif, 1948), p. 461. 60. Ibid., vol. IV, p. 214. 61. Ibid., vol. VII, p. 17. 62. Ibid. 63. Al-dakhîra al-saniya (Le trésor magnifique). Chronique anonyme des Mérinides, ed. Mohammed Ben Cheneb (Algiers: 1921), pp. 13-14. 64. Ibn 'Idhârî, Al-Bayân al-mughrib f i akhbâr al-maghrib (Beirut: Maktabat sâdir, 1950). French transaction by E. Fagan (Algiers: 1910), 2 vols. 65. Ibn Abî Dînâr, Al-M unis f i akhbâr ifrîqiya wa tûnus, ed. Muhammad Shammâm (Tunis: 1967). 66. Fragments, p. 2. 67. Ibn Abî Diyâf, Ith â f al-zamân (Tunis: 1963), vol. I, p. 80. 68. Nâsirî, Al-istiqsâ f i akhbâr duwal al-maghrib al-aqsâ (Casablanca: Dâr al-kitâb, 1954), vol. I, pp. 72-73. 69. Ibid., vol. I, p. 83. 70. Ibid., vol. IX, p. 208. 71. F. Boas, “Development of Folk-Tales and Myths,” in Race, Language, and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 405.

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72. A similar idea was expressed by Claude Lévi-Strauss: “Mythical thought builds ideological casdes out of the debris of what was once a social dis­ course.” The Savage M ind (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, 1966), p. 21 . 73. See the different views of P. Nora, “La mémoire collective,” in La Nouvelle histoire (Paris: Retz, 1978), pp. 398—401; and Ph. Joutard, “La mémoire collective,” in Dictionnaire des sciences historiques, edited by André Burguière (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1986), pp. 447-49. 74. Joutard, “La mémoire.”

Chapter 2

Colonial Histories

T he French had long been in contact w ith N orth Africa before the con­ quest o f Algiers in 1830. French interest in N orth Africa was a part o f a broad and complicated set o f interests. N orth Africa interested the French as a part o f the Islamic world and o f the O ttom an Empire. In addition, N orth Africa had been for many centuries an object o f curiosity to the French. Thus, it was the subject o f diverse writings by diplomats, travelers, and adventurers. Hence the abundance o f travel literature and the relative scarcity o f historical writings. By the end o f the nineteenth century, N orth Africa had become a French colonial territory as well as a French field o f study. French Orientalism at this point was in fact more concerned w ith the past o f N orth Africa than with its present. O r to be more precise, it was the present o f N orth Africa which directed French Orientalism to its past. In their attem pt to rule N orth Africa more effectively, and eventually make it French territory, an extension o f France, body and soul, the French were very concerned w ith its past. Their aim was indeed to understand it better, and create a whole mythology which would justify and consoli­ date their colonial enterprise. T he Islamization and the Arabization o f N orth Africa were o f particular interest for the French. The questions implicit in most o f the French studies in the colonial period were: how did the Arabs succeed in making N orth Africa Arab? Is it possible to make it French? In this chapter, I will explore how the French wrote the episode o f the Kahina both before and during their crucial period o f hegemony. I will examine the goal that the French scholar intends to achieve by presenting

Colonial Histories, Post-Colonial Memories

30

the Kahina and her resistance in a specific way, and w hat the legend o f the Kahina expresses in each period in various contexts. T he chapter will also pursue the peregrination o f the legend in Jewish political and cultural milieux in colonial Algeria, a peregrination that led to its adoption by Israeli writers in a Zionist context. The Legend in the Pre-Colonial Period Absence or Silence? T he abundance o f references to the legend o f the Kahina in the colo­ nial era contrasts w ith their extreme scarcity in the eighteenth century. In many o f the books which were intended to familiarize the reader— usu­ ally a prince or the king himself—w ith the history o f N orth Africa, the legend was simply ignored. There are two ways to explain its absence. First, in some cases the absence may be explained by the writer’s desire for brevity. Some books were concerned almost exclusively w ith contem­ porary events in N orth Africa; in such works its Islamicization was sum­ marized in the introduction.1 T he second way o f explaining the absence is more problematic, and has more to do with myth. In books intended to introduce the reader to the history o f N orth Africa, there has always been some form o f explicit or implicit goal in writing the history o f the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa. By the beginning o f the eighteenth cen­ tury, the attitude toward the Muslim world, which had for a long time represented a nightmare for Europe, was changing. T he power o f the O ttom an Empire was in decline. Historical writings o f this period were mainly, if not exclusively, concerned w ith the power o f the O ttom an Empire. Two contrasting images recur in the historical accounts. O ne is the positive image o f the Muslim as a model for Christians;2 the O tto ­ man government was seen as the most perfect form o f government. T he other image is rather negative. The Muslim was viewed as a barbarian, and the O ttom an government was perceived as despotic.3 T he silence about the episode o f the Kahina, and about the Arab conquest in gen­ eral, may be explained in the first case by its lesser significance when compared to the great achievements o f the Muslims, achievements deemed more worthy o f historical mention. O ne would surmise that in this con­ text, discussion o f a victory over a horde o f barbarians led by a woman could not serve to enhance the exalted image o f the Muslims. Conversely, the negative image o f the Muslim could be justified by things more im­ portant than this episode such as the recent O ttom an invasions o f Chris­ tian lands, which left little room for other narratives.4 In short, in this

Colonial Histories

31

pre-colonial period, che Kahina’s legend was too insignificant to draw the attention o f the Christian reader, and did not serve to achieve any goal. But still we can assume that the Kahina already existed at that time be­ hind the scenes. She was there, but there was no need yet to bring her to the front, a player on the bench.

The Berber Queen Denis Dominique Cardonne (1720-83) is perhaps the first French his­ torian to discuss the Kahina in a book he devoted exclusively to the his­ tory o f the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa.5 Cardonne makes the aim o f his book explicit from the outset: Several authors have written the history of Arab conquests in the Orient, but those of the Occident are less known.6 French knowledge o f N orth African history comes from Arabic histori­ ography. Nevertheless, the gap between Arabic and French accounts is wide. The French read and interpret the Arabic historiography differently from the Arabs. The French reading is greatly influenced by their percep­ tion o f N orth Africa as a part o f a hostile territory, that o f Islam. It is interesting in this respect to see how the episode o f the Kahina was re­ written by Denis Cardonne, who draws heavily and perhaps entirely upon Nuwayri.7 We have already seen how the legend was written by Nuwayri and the other Arab historians and what it meant for the Muslim commu­ nity. Let us now see what Cardonne reproduced and what he deleted. To begin with, in Ibn Khaidûns text as well as in most Arabic sources, the opposition from the very beginning is between the territory o f Islam on the one hand, with all the positive connotations it has for the Mus­ lims, and the territory o f war (Dâr al-Harb) on the other, which is re­ plete with negative connotations. In C ardonnes version, the opposition is reversed. The territory o f Islam takes on pejorative connotations; the ter­ ritory o f war becomes the realm o f Christian belief. It goes w ithout say­ ing that the same text transported to another space is no longer the same. In a similar manner, the receiver is no longer the same. The Arabic source was addressed to a Muslim believer to consolidate his faith and/or to flatter his tribal feelings. Cardonnes text is addressed to a prince, a repre­ sentative o f a Christian community, to empower him with knowledge about Muslims. This opposition between Islam and Christianity is clear throughout the whole o f Cardonnes book. The author narrates the perpetual struggle be­

32

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tween the Christians and the Muslims along the two coasts o f the Medi­ terranean. The Arab seizure o f N orth Africa from Christian Greeks is in­ scribed in this struggle. Such also is the case with the episode o f the Kahina, although there is no mention o f the Berber religion. The conflict which took place in the seventh century is described as taking place be­ tween Christians and Muslims. Things were going pretty well for N orth Africans until the Kahina took control o f the situation. Though she suc­ ceeded in defeating Hassan and chasing him out o f N orth Africa, she ruled the country poorly. Cardonne adopts the version that ascribes to her the destruction o f the country. His narrative is not significantly different from Nuwayri s in its first part, before the second return o f Hassan. O nly then does Cardonne give his own interpretation, adding a small detail, which makes the whole story radically different from Nuwayri s, as well as distinct from that o f the Arab historians in general. Here is the detail: Hasan, in his turn in Africa, found the Greeks ill-disposed to the queen of the Berbers. He took advantage of this discord that was favorable to him.8 According to the earliest sources, the division among the Berbers which caused the ruin o f the Kahina resulted from her destruction o f the coun­ try. In this text, conversely, the Kahinas action made the Greeks unwilling to fight on her side. Defeat ensued, as she was obliged to free the Arabs with only the Berber faction. The Berber queen could not rise to the difficult task o f defending the country. H er weakness was not so much military, since she could initially defeat the Arabs, as it was administrative. Though presented in a positive light, the Kahina caused the victory o f the Arabs by destroying the country. But it is im portant to stress that in the whole struggle, the pivotal point became the role o f the Greeks, that is, the Christians. It was only because the Greeks refused to join the Berber army that the Kahina lost the battle. O f equal, or perhaps greater, impor­ tance is the fact that by removing the Christians from the decisive battle, Cardonne was able to present the subsequent defeat and the conquest o f N orth Africa by the Arabs as the fault o f the Berbers. Responsibility for the defeat, therefore, is laid on the Berbers. The Christians, in the ultimate analysis, were not defeated since they were not present at the battle. The author not only stresses the opposition between the Christians and the Muslims, but also makes it clear that the balance o f power was (and still is) on the Christian side. In the eighteenth century, Europe already felt more confident about the O ttom an Empire, whose decline was apparent. But still, the long heritage

Colonial Histories

33

o f fear that had accumulated for centuries could not disappear completely.9 There remained a need to assure the Christians o f their strength. To do so it was necessary to show that the strength o f the Christians was not new, but that it was rooted in ancient history. The implicit idea is that in some ways, Christians have always been superior to Muslims. This idea had been previously expressed by Luther and Postel in the assertion that the O ttom an Empire was G ods punishm ent,10 and therefore merely an acci­ dent in the Christian trajectory. In the eighteenth century G ods punish­ m ent appeared to be ending. This version o f the Kahina with its mythical dimension becomes com­ m on by the second half o f the eighteenth century. O tter is another au­ thor who devoted a whole study to the conquest o f N orth Africa by the Arabs.11 He too claims to draw extensively from Nuwayrî. His version is actually very similar to Cardonne’s except in one detail. T he Greeks, “des­ perate because o f the ruin o f their country,”12 not only refused to fight on the Kahina’s side but actually joined the enemy’s side. But even in doing so they were not protected by the Muslims as they expected. De­ spite this detail, O tters version provides us with the same explanation o f the outcome o f the battle and its consequences. The Christians changed sides as a result o f the Kahinas policy. The Kahina, however, does not seem to have a religion. She is a “Moorish princess” who rules a Berber population. O ne may conclude that in the authors understanding a Berber and a M oor are synonymous, but for the Christian reader who had been acquainted with the name “Moor” for centuries, the word is synonymous with the Arab Muslim. At any rate, the Kahina is in many ways respon­ sible for the ruin o f N orth Africa by adopting a policy which denies her Christian help. This myth o f Christian superiority is articulated in another text about the Kahina, written by H . Lebeau,13 but in a most unexpected way. In contrast to the previous texts where the Kahina is presented as a nonChristian defeated queen, Lebeaus text stresses the positive aspects in the episode o f her resistance— the victory over the Arabs, the unification o f N orth Africa, and even the heroic ending. However, he does not attribute these good deeds to the Kahina, but to a Christian, the patriarch Jean. T he Kahina is no longer a woman, nor a Berber, nor a non-Christian, but a Christian man. Therefore her supposed deeds are used to reinforce the superiority o f the Christians. As Lebeau put it: The Arab authors, partisans of the marvelous (merveilleux) have covered the history of this revolution with fabulous circumstances. According to their accounts, it was a Berber queen by the name of

34

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Kahina who first challenged the Arabs. According to the most judicious critiques, this heroine is the patriarch Jean himself whom the Arab historians have disguised as a woman because he was a eunuch. u Lebeaus contemporaries mentioned only the negative aspects o f the Arab conquest, for they were eager to prevent the humiliation o f the Christians and to ease the long heritage o f fear o f the Muslims. They presented the Kahina, an indigenous leader alien (one would assume) to the Christians, and they held her responsible for the defeat; hence the absence o f reference to her religion. It was the Kahina who was defeated, not the Christians. Lebeau reverses the legend. He looks at it positively by showing the achievements— la révolution and le défi—and he attributes them to the Christians. In this legend, the Kahina disappears, only to appear in another form, that o f a Christian eunuch. It is worthwhile to note how the author transforms the Kahina. In this text the Kahina is presented as being untransformed. It is the Arab historians who are dis­ credited from the outset as partisans du merveilleux. They have transformed acceptable forms to unacceptable forms. The Arabs have done so, it is implied, because they are the enemies o f Christianity, the "agents o f Sa­ tan,” to use an expression o f the tim e.11 But Lebeau, on the authority o f Otter, aimed to confirm the superiority o f the Christians at a time when this supposed superiority manifested itself in other tangible, military forms. T he eighteenth century, in particular, was disastrous for the Ottomans. N ot only were they unable to make any new progress in their conquests, which were so vital to the Empire, but they were losing territories to Austria (Treaty o f Passarowitz, 21 July 1718) and to Russia (Treaty o f K utchuk Kaynardja, 1778). Even w ithin the Empire, some provinces would soon show signs o f independence (Muhammad 'All [1805—48] in Egypt and Ahmad Bey [1837-55] in Tunisia). The O ttom an Empire was already sick. T he Legend o f the Kahina in Colonial H istoriography The Berber Queen W hen the French took over Algeria, their intellectual interest increased as they realized that they needed to know the country better in order to rule it more effectively. Their progress was quick and astonishing. In a relatively short period, the masterpieces o f N orth African historiography were translated into French.16 Many specialized journals devoted to the study o f Algeria were founded and an increasing num ber o f specialists

Colonial Histories

35

emerged.17 T he field was no longer the concern o f amateurs using more or less successively Nuwayri and Ibn Khaldûn, but o f trained scholars able to use a significant num ber o f sources. Ernest Mercier was beyond any doubt one o f the pioneers who devoted his life to Algeria’s past and present. He was a historian as well as a politician.1* It might be said that the profession o f historian was imposed on him by his responsibilities as a politician. Mercier was a colonialist who not only worked hard to es­ tablish French colonial rule in Algeria, but also showed great interest in Morocco and even the Sahara and the Sudan.19 Merciers work actually revolves around two axes: the history o f N orth Africa, with a particular interest in the episode o f the Arab conquests, and the then contemporary s a te o f Algeria. T he first concern was only a means for addressing the second. Early in his life, Mercier devoted his first article, for the renowned Société Archéologique de Constantine, to the episode o f the Kahina.20 Let us summarize Mercier’s writing about her.21 Mercier informs us from the outset that the Kahina was a Jewish Berber. D uring the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa, the Berber resistance was led by Kusayla, a Berber chief from Awrâba. After his death, the Kahina emerged as the strongest leader, having won numerous struggles for leadership. The Kahina’s family, according to Mercier, had been ruling N orth Africa for a long time. Nevertheless, she established her power independently. She also succeeded in building enthusiasm and courage among the Berbers. Having done this, she atucked the Arab army and defeated it. She chased the Arabs from N orth Africa. She also captured many prisoners and treated them in such a kind way that she gave the Arabs a lesson in humanity. She even adopted one o f them. O nce the Kahina had chased the Arabs away she governed N orth Africa fairly, but she could not prevent an internal struggle among the Berbers. This division o f the Berbers was actually the cause o f her defeat when Hassân attacked her again. But the Kahina was also, in Merciers opinion, a victim o f circumstances. T he Arab invasion was unavoidable. Mercier noted another cause o f her defeat— Khâlid’s betrayal. Instead o f being grateful, he showed, Mercier says, “the darkest kind o f ingratitude” and “a typically Muslim perfidy.”22 T he Kahina knew the outcome o f the battle in advance, not through her demons as the Arab historians maintained, but thanks to her intelli­ gence. However she resisted bravely, adopting a new strategy o f resistance to daunt the enemy— the destruction o f cities and forests. But the Berber peasants could not understand the meaning o f this policy; thus, they did not understand that independence was more im portant than what was destroyed. As a result, they gave up resistance, and abandoned the Kahina.

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The situation then turned in favor o f the Arabs. Hassân attacked and defeated the Kahina. She took refuge in the Castle o f Jim . From there she left for the Awris mountains. She then ordered her sons to join the enemy. Once this was done, she attacked Hassân with her remaining faithful tribes and was killed heroically in the batde. The Berbers surrendered after her death, and Hassân forced them to convert after having killed many o f them. Those who were converted were recruited into the Arab army. The Kahina’s sons became military chiefs o f Jrâwa and Awrâs. It is clear, from the first reading o f Mercier, that the Kahina is por­ trayed as a heroine. She has the marks o f a hero: she is o f noble birth, and her family have ruled N orth Africa for a long time. Even her femininity, which has been read as a negative aspect in the Arabic historiography, has a positive connotation in Merciers work. It gives her more value. Though a woman, the Kahina has won numerous struggles for leadership. She is a Jew, and thus she is one o f “us.” She is a Berber, and thus neither a Muslim nor an Arab; better yet, as a Berber, she is also one o f "us”— Europeans.23 T he Kahina is appropriated by Mercier from the outset. However, this is not all about the Kahinas heroic image. She is primarily presented as a defender o f N orth Africa from the Arab conquest. In Merciers writing, there is an opposition between the Arabs on the one hand and the Berbers along with the remaining Greek and Roman populations on the other. This opposition has, o f course, its function. If there is one thing that the text stresses most, it is the fact that N orth Africa was Berber, and no less significantly, Roman. The Arabs were invad­ ers. In France, N orth Africa was perceived as being an Arab land. Mercier’s writing aimed to achieve a political goal o f significant importance by re­ futing this common perception. In the early phase o f the colonization o f Algeria, that is in the 1850s and especially in the 1860s, the tension between the Bureau Arabe, which was exclusively composed o f soldiers who served as intermediaries between the tribes and the government, and the settlers, who were struggling for a complete assimilation o f Algeria, was high.24 It was all the more so when, after a three-day visit to Algeria on September 17-19, 1860, Na­ poleon III declared that Algeria was un royaume arabe, not to be con­ founded with a colony. He sought to achieve “perfect equality between the indigenes and the Europeans.” The subsequent sénatus-consulte, issued on April 22, 1863, maintained that the “Tribes o f Algeria are declared owners o f the territory that they possessed in permanent and traditional manner.”23 Mercier, who was not only a settler, but a representative o f the setders’ interests, was fiercely opposed to this policy. Algeria, Mercier implies, was

Colonial Histories

37

not Arab as Napoleon asserted. As a matter o f (act, it was not Arab since the Arabs were just conquerors. Algeria was taken from both the Berbers and the Romans by force. Curiously enough Mercier does not condemn the Arab conquest, but rather portrays it as a natural disaster which just happened, which no one— not even the Kahina— could prevent. In a simi­ lar manner, one could say that the French occupation, like that o f the Arabs, was unavoidable. There is, however, more to this story. N orth Af­ rica was inhabited not just by Berbers, but by Romans as well. Therefore, as the Berbers came from Europe, and given the fact that the French considered themselves to be the heirs o f the Romans,26 one would con­ clude not only that the French occupation was justified, but that any seizure o f Arab lands by the settlers was also justified. In short, the French had the right, if not the duty, to colonize. They were just taking what had belonged to them since the dawn o f time. T he Kahina represents European origin, just as she represents the change that occurred. She is a Berber, and therefore a European in the final analy­ sis. H er legend articulates, for the first time, two myths: the Berber myth and the Roman N orth African myth. These same myths were expressed through the Kahina legend by other historians in the colonial period. This is because Merciers text was foundational\ it not only gave birth to a new myth, but it also generated other texts that repeated, in their own ways, the same myth.27 Henri Fournel,28 who uses almost all the available sources, in his turn reproduces the same legend in order to attain the same goal. In his intro­ duction, Fournel concludes that: Since 1830 we have been on the wrong path for we have been too exclusively occupied with Arabs, and have mistakenly neglected the real indigenes, the Berbers (the Kabyles), an eminently hard­ working race, not fanatical, attached to the soil with enclosed prop­ erties where they live in small houses covered with tiles, practicing, still in a rough state, some industries whose perfection we can encourage. In short, all the rudimentary habits make them closer to us than the habits that constitute the Arab life.24 Fournel tends to emphasize the opposition between the Berbers and the Arabs. This opposition was first put forward, curiously enough, by an officer o f the Bureau Arabe, Captain Daumas, who made an expedition, with Fabar, another officer o f the Bureau Arabe, in the Kabyle territory. Their study was supposed to provide the French government with infor­ mation about the Berbers so that it could rule them as a distinct popula­ tion.30 But soon, as the military regime clashed with the settlers, the

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opposition became a weapon in the hand o f the settlers to justify their own policy and to oppose that o f Napoleon III. Henceforth, the settlers maintained that there were two groups in Algeria, the Berbers who were the real indigenes and the Arabs who were the invaders. This opposition had been promoted historically, that is mythically, by Mercier and Fournel. It had been largely accepted as we find it in Renans writing about the Kabyles,31 and even in Marx and Engels’ writings about Algeria.32 Jules Boulanger, a lesser historian than Mercier, reproduces the same myth o f Berber and Roman N orth Africa while writing the history o f the Kahina’s resistance.33 As in Merciers text, the Kahina was a Jewish queen and an ally o f the Byzantines. But Boulanger differs from Mercier in one detail. T he N orth African population turned against the Kahina for two reasons, not just one, as Mercier maintains. In addition to her destruction o f the land, Boulanger adds that the Kahina married an Arab named Khâlid and bore two sons with him. In other words, the destruction o f the land along with the Kahina’s matrimonial alliance with the Arabs caused the conquest o f N orth Africa. N orth Africa belonged to “us,” Boulanger im­ plies, and we lost it through our own mistake, through our alliance with the Arab. The Arab is not an acceptable or desirable element in the pic­ ture; he must be excluded. The colonial situation parallels that o f the past. Both Napoleon and the Bureau Arabe would create the same types o f problems by attem pting to integrate the Arabs in Algeria. This policy was weakening the French position in Algeria. The idea that a pro-indigenous policy was a danger for the French colonial enterprise was expressed explicitly by politicians at that time, es­ pecially during the periods o f rebellions. After the insurrection o f the Kabyles in 1871, they were no longer seen as Berbers but as Arabs (considered, like Khâlid), ungrateful and perfidious: Arabs cannot understand our good intentions, the feelings of jus­ tice and humanity that guide us. Indifferent to our advances, dis­ dainful of our generosity, they remain always hostile to us and consider our benevolence a weakness inherent to our race.34 This change, however, was temporary. It occurred whenever the colo­ nial enterprise was in jeopardy. It became permanent only when the French were certain o f the failure o f the enterprise after the 1930s. Henceforth, the Berbers were no longer Europeans, but Orientals, or a mixture o f both, which in fact meant that they were neither one.3'

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39

In any case, the colonial discourse, though it tends to be secular, has a religious coloring. T he opposition between the Arabs and the Berbers refleets this contradiction. T he Arabs are Muslims; therefore they are fanat­ ics. T he Berbers are not truly Muslims; their Islam is "tepid” (tiède), so they can eventually be Christianized, or their "tepid” Islam can eventually be accepted.36 This idea is best articulated by £. Guernier, a professor o f political science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques at the University o f Paris and member o f the Académie des Sciences Coloniales. After having reported the outlines o f the episode o f resistance o f both the Kahina and Kusayla, he concludes: We can say that at this moment the Old and the New Testaments were resisting the invasion of the Quran.37 Guernier put it clearly, though naively, demonstrating how the com­ mon colonial discourse differentiated on the basis o f what was believed to be race, and the ability o f the population to progress within Western civi­ lization. The reference to the Kahina was always, superficially, secular. The Kahina was a nationalist Berber, first and foremost, and Jewish as an after­ thought. In reality, however, the French were making an attem pt to con­ nect the Kahina and her group, the Berbers, to Europe. T his was accomplished not only on the basis o f race, but also on the basis o f reli­ gion. Kusayla was a Christian, and the Kahina was Jewish; therefore, it was a conflict between Christianity and Islam which took place in the seventh century. The Berbers, those who were part o f “us” by virtue o f race and religion, were dominated by the Arabs and Islam. It was time, now that the Arab dom ination had been swept away, that the Berbers should accept French civilization. Merciers version lasted even longer than French colonialism. In what we may call the post-colonial period, the myth o f Roman N orth Africa is still alive among those nostalgic for the colonial period. Dufourcq is prob­ ably the best example o f this.38 His version is slightly different from Merciers, in one im portant detail. Dufourcq is the only historian who pays attention to Ibn 'Abd al-Hakams note about the Kahinas son, who presumably participated in the battle against 'U qba. However, Dufourcq assumes that the Kahinas son is none other than Kusayla. Thus, the Kahina was the continuation o f her sons resistance. They both utilized the same military strategy. Moreover, one o f Kusayla’s commanders later led the m others army. The Berber resistance means, according to this author, that N orth Africa resisted Arabization, and was eager to keep its Roman and Christian

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40

identity. In other words, the Berber resistance was Christian, since almost all the Berbers were close to Christianity. Dufourcq does not, however, deny the existence o f pagans and Judaized tribes. Even as late as 1981, Doufourcq is still defending the idea o f a Roman and Christian N orth Africa through the same legend o f the Kahina.39

The Nomadic Queen By the beginning o f the twentieth century, French colonization had spread over the whole o f Algerian territory. The strongest resistance against the French, led by 'A bd al-Qâdir (1839-47), had been swept away, and the success o f colonization seemed certain. Surprising "progress” occurred in the study o f N orth Africa. No longer the monopoly o f Arabists, the field now received serious contributions from trained scholars such as EmileFélix Gautier, a historian and geographer. T he skill o f such a man along with a translation o f Ibn Khaldûn into French, made available by De Slane,40 provided the field, as Jacques Berque pointed out, with une belle mythologie.*1 Gautier, a politician like Mercier, yet more o f an academic, devoted his life to the contemporary history o f N orth Africa through the study o f its past. His historical work focused on the same period as Mercier, that is, the period o f the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa, which Gautier called the “obscure centuries.”42 The legend o f the Kahina was at the center o f his mythology. Let us see first how Gautier wrote her legend. The Kahina in G autiers account is inseparable from the other Berber resistance such as that o f Kusayla. Gautier begins his study o f the Arab conquests in the following manner: The heroes of the Berber independence at the time of the Arab invasion are, as it is known by all, Kusayla and the Kahina. They were for years the champions and the masters of the Maghrib.43 T he defeat o f'U q b a b. N âfi', in G autiers opinion, was rather a victory o f the Byzantines. Kusayla was assisted by the Romans and he himself, though Berber, was from the Christianized and therefore Romanized tribe o f Awraba. After the defeat o f Kusayla, the Kahina took over. According to Gautier, who frequently cites Ibn Khaldûn, the Kahina was from the Jrawa tribe, which was Judaized. The Kahina soon drove Hassan out o f Ifriqiya, and governed alone for five years. However, when the Arabs attacked again, they killed her. The cause o f her defeat, according to Gautier, who quotes Ibn al-Athir, was mauvaise administration, tyrannie, injustice.**

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Though she was not a good ruler, Gautier ascribed to her, as well as to Kusayla, the merit o f unifying the Maghrib, the great dream o f Masinissa.4’ This unification was realized, however, through cooperation between the Berbers and the Byzantines. The role o f the Byzantines was only one o f finance and advice. There is a similarity, Gautier notes, between the Berber unification o f the Maghrib and the French unification o f France. The French were unified and were able to prevent a German invasion only when they were assisted by Roman clerics. In a similar fashion, the Berbers were unified only when they were assisted by the Byzantines. But the unity o f N orth Africa was only temporary.46 Nonetheless, at the beginning o f the clash the Kahina ordered her sons to join the Arabs because she knew she would be killed. Gautier thinks that this action reflected the mentality o f the Berbers who, unlike the highly civilized Westerners who think in terms o f the nation, do not go beyond the frame o f the tribe. Gautier draws a parallel between the case o f the Kahina with her sons and the similar situation in Morocco when the French took it over.47 In the French experience in Morocco, a Berber leader named M oha-ou-Hamm ou, a fierce enemy o f the French, behaved exactly like the Kahina. He succeeded in defeating the French army once. But as the French were persistent and he knew he would be defeated, he asked his thirteen sons to join the French army. Later on, he was defeated and killed in battle. This attitude is not out o f place for the Berbers, according to Gautier. It reflects two o f their characteristics: that they are pragmatists and that they have not changed, remaining as they were on the eve o f the Arab conquests. Regarding the Kahinas destruction o f N orth Africa, Gautier rejects it because it is not likely that she destroyed the whole Maghrib in such a short time. For a better understanding o f G autiers text, it is crucial to see the general framework o f his work. Gautier has a theory about the popu­ lations o f N orth Africa that explains, in its own way, the legend o f the Arab conquest. There are, according to Gautier, two groups in N orth Africa. The Berbers are distinguished by their sedentary style o f life and by their mode o f architecture. This population is the oldest population o f N orth Africa. The second is nomadic, known in Ibn Khaldûns time by the name o f Zenata. This name, however, does not appear in Greek sources. This population is clearly different from the first one. The Zenata migrated early from the East and most likely intermarried with local populations. This migration took place, according to Gautier, during the third century and corresponds to the appearance in N orth Africa o f a new animal— the camel. The camel is a typically Arab animal, unknown in ancient Egypt. Even its name is, in

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all languages, a loan-word derived from Arabic. T he camel was introduced into N orth Africa at the same time as the nomad. They are, it would seem, inseparable. T he appearance o f the camel was a real revolution serv­ ing to bridge the unbridgeable distance between the East and N orth Af­ rica. But at the same time, it marked the beginning o f the fall o f Roman civilization in N orth Africa. The nomad {le pou du chameau or "the louse o f the camel” as the colonial saying goes) caused the ruin o f Western civilization in the Maghrib. G autiers description o f this nom ad is not particularly flattering: This man is the nomad, the great nomad, camel rider, grouped in fearful tribes, each in itself a sort of a born regiment, without preliminary training. Quick, elusive, capable o f emerging at any moment, unexpected, like a catastrophe o f unwatched loneliness. A powerful military tool. This great nomad hardened by the pri­ vations of the desert is by a natural consequence ardent, of deep desire, thirsty for pleasures. In his terrible poverty, this wild ani­ mal {fauve) pursues inside himself, in a confusing manner, a dream of plundering and dom ination.48 This man has no sense o f civilization, and destroys any place he passes through. H e is responsible for the decline o f Roman civilization in N orth Africa. He is actually the cause o f the ruin o f N orth Africa. There are two completely different Maghribs, according to Gautier: one before the ap­ pearance o f the camel, prosperous and civilized; the second ruined, de­ stroyed, and completely uncivilized, the Maghrib o f the camel. This division o f the population o f N orth Africa explains the whole episode o f the conquest. There has been a fundamental duality in N orth Africa between the Berbers, the real natives, and the Zenata, o f foreign origin and distinguished by their abhorrence o f civilization. T he two groups were known, according to Gautier who quotes Ibn Khaldûn, as Bernes and Botr. In G autiers opinion, Bernes was the leading tribe which constituted the wall o f resistance against the Arabs. Kusayla belonged to this tribe. The strength o f this tribe came from their alliance with the Byzantines: W hat is certain is that the Aureba were Bernes, particularly close to Christianity. The victory of Sidi Oqba was a Byzantine victory in great part probably.49 Having asserted the victory o f Kusayla as Byzantine, Gautier refuses to accept the idea o f the defeat:

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The Arab historians assert that the victory was decisive and that the defeated Berbers were chased far away. It is difficult to believe them because they also say that according to their own views the Arabs evacuated Ifriqiya one more time and that Zuhayr was killed in Tripolitania while retreating.50 The second wave o f resistance was led by a tribe from among the Botr, the Jrâwa, the Kahina s tribe. This tribe is from the Zenata, and therefore nomadic and o f foreign origin. From the start, they were opposed, by their own nature, to the Bernes, according to Gautier. It is this opposi­ tion which weakened the resistance and facilitated the Arab conquest. We can distinguish in G autiers text three different collective actors: the first one is the nomad, described as an intruder and as an enemy o f civilization. He is, so to speak, the anti-hero par excellence. The hero is none other than the Roman, the second actor. He brought Western civi­ lization to N orth Africa just as the nomad brought its decline. The third actor is the Berber. The Berber, as is shown in the episode o f the Kahina, did not improve, retaining his primitive mentality as confirmed in the episode o f Moha-ou-Hammou in Morocco. The Berber is submissive, nei­ ther knowing what patriotism is, nor being able to found a nation.51 He can, however, reach a high level o f civilization if he is helped, as was the case with the Bernes. The nomad, here meaning the Arab, is unable to help or to be helped since he is responsible for the decline o f N orth Africa. In a way, the first task for the potential helper is to get rid o f him. No one is able to help, to bring Western civilization back to N orth Africa, other than the heirs o f the Romans— the French. By returning to N orth Africa, the French are returning to the place where they built a great civilization in the past. O ne would conclude that the nomad is an intruder who came later to N orth Africa to cause its decline. The French have as much right to N orth Africa as the Berbers themselves. Why? Be­ cause the Berbers are originally from Europe: Anthropologists agree that Berbers, in bodily structure and the shape of their skull, are connected with Southern Italians and South­ ern Spaniards rather than with African and Oriental races.52 The Kahina is therefore not Berber since she is from the Jrâwa, a Botr tribe. She is nomadic, and therefore an Arab or o f mixed blood. Anyway, she has the mentality o f the Arabs. The Zenata, Gautier quotes Ibn Khaldûn, are very close to the Arabs.55 As in the other texts written during the colonial period, Gautiers work expresses in his own way, by orientalizing the Kahina, the same myths we

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have seen previously, the Roman N orth African myth and the Berber myth. The first one justifies the French occupation o f Algeria. T he sec­ ond justifies the policy preached and soon adopted by the settlers— the spoliation o f the land. Gautier, like Mercier, considered himself an Alge­ rian,54 meaning a colonialist who believed in the total right o f France in Algeria. He was opposed to the Bureau Arabe as well as to any policy that did not encourage by all means the complete assimilation o f Algeria. But Gautier expresses the same myths in a more sophisticated way, hence the adjective belle added by Berque to mythologie. Gautier not only repro­ duces the same myths, but he also creates another one to consolidate the first two. This myth is that o f the Arab destroyer, the fierce enemy o f civilization. This nomad was in the past the cause o f the decline o f the Roman Empire; he may be the cause o f the failure o f the French enter­ prise which has the great mission o f civilizing N orth Africa. To argue that the French have to civilize, Gautier has first to prove the decadence o f the Maghrib, a decadence which has lasted centuries since the arrival o f the nomad and the departure o f the Roman. Indeed, G autiers my­ thology has the structure o f a folktale. N orth Africa was prosperous and civilized when it was ruled by the Romans. Then, as in a folktale, the anti-hero, the nomad, arrived to reverse the situation, and created disor­ der, ruin, chaos. T he situation lasted centuries and everything in N orth Africa deteriorated. The Berbers were unable to make progress, did not change, as was proved by the attitude o f M oha-ou-Hamm ou which re­ flected the attitude o f the Kahina when she asked her sons to join the Arabs. The Berbers did not change; the question was also how could they? They had always needed help to maintain a modicum o f civilization. At any rate, the situation needed change, normalization, and only the French, who considered themselves the heirs o f the Romans, could really change it and bring back what the nomad had destroyed. The Arab is therefore the enemy o f the French. This myth justifies his oppression and his com­ plete exclusion. G autiers sophistication is also manifested on another level— that o f ar­ gumentation. As a historical discourse, his text presents an argument com­ mon to all historical accounts. It gives the impression to its reader that events happen by themselves. The author is thus not seen to speak; "real­ ity” is presented, as historical discourse aims at the representation o f “real­ ity” and not the verisimilitude o f it, as in literary discourse.55 But Gautiers text includes more. He is exclusively using Ibn Khaldun to prove the destructive instinct o f the nomad. N ot only does G autiers text give the impression that it is reality which speaks; so too does Ibn Khaldûns. Ibn Khaldun, a great authority in Islamic history and more importantly an

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Arab, observes the quality o f his own people. You may disagree with Gautier, a Frenchman, and accuse him o f disliking the Arabs, but it would be difficult to disagree with Ibn Khaldûn and make the same accusation. It is because o f this sophistication that Gautier’s text remained authori­ tative for decades. It provided, in the context o f French colonization, one o f the most solid myths o f Roman N orth Africa as well as the m yth o f la mission civilisatrice de la France. Well documented, using the highest au­ thority in N orth African historiography along w ith the most recent ethno­ graphic and archeological data provided by Emile Masqueray56 and Stéphane Gsell,57 G autier’s legend lasted long.58 Even Charles-André Julien, regarded as a brilliant young historian, could not escape Gautier’s “textual power,” so to speak, when he wrote his book, Histoire de l A ’ frique du Nord, pub­ lished for the first tim e in 1931.59 He repeated Gautier’s version o f the Kahina. O nly when the book was revised three decades later was the leg­ end radically transformed. Let us not, however, anticipate.

The Sedentary Queen Gautier’s theory o f the N orth African population was strongly criticized by W. Marçais.60 Marçais demonstrated the inconsistencies in Gautier’s argument w ith little difficulty. Curiously enough, however, Marçais can be accused o f doing that o f which Voltaire accused Descartes: he refuted the errors o f his predecessors only to replace them w ith his own. Marçais indeed refuted Gautier’s form o f the mythology only to give us another form. Marçais was also a settler in Algeria, but unlike Gautier he was a phi­ lologist and a linguist. N o wonder that he did not follow the misleading path o f geography. To create a hum an division only on a geographical basis offers a hypothesis which, at best, remains a hypothesis if it cannot be refuted. Marçais himself did not find it difficult to reject most o f Gautier’s hypothesis. Acknowledging the mixture throughout N orth African popula­ tions would seem to jeopardize the whole o f Gautier’s theory: T h at in the veins o f many Africans runs Arab blood, one can not doubt.61

Similarly: In the ancestry o f many Berbers, there is w ithout a doubt some­ where in an ignored spot one or several Carthaginian, Vandal, or Greek ancestors.62

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As regards the opposition between the sedentary Bernes and the no­ madic Botr, Marçais could readily observe that this division was not cat­ egorical. Many tribes o f the Botr were sedentary, such as the Jrâwa, the Kahina’s tribe. And many o f the supposed sedentary tribes were nomadic. T he Kahina was therefore from a sedentary community, which implies that the duality established by Gautier as a cause o f the Arab conquests does not stand. Therefore, reasons for the Arab conquests should be sought elsewhere. Marçais does not devote a whole study to the Kahina; the few things he says about her are said in passing in studies o f the Arabization o f N orth Africa.63 W hat is clear, however, is his belief that the Kahina was neither Jewish nor a significant actor in the Arab conquest. According to Marçais the Kahina defeated Hassân, and put into practice an unsuccessful strategy which consisted o f the destruction o f the land. However, Marçais asserted that the degree o f destruction was exaggerated by the Arab historians. In Marçais’s account, the Kahina is reduced to a shadow along with the whole Berber population. For Marçais, language is extremely im portant, while the notion o f race is tricky and dangerous. Knowing the current opinion in Europe, where race had been identified with language since the great linguistic discoveries o f the language families, and seeing how language, along with history, has constituted the fundament o f various nationalisms, Marçais dealt with the issue o f the Arabization o f N orth Africa from this angle. N orth Africa had been for a long time a part o f the West, not so much because o f the massive presence o f any Western population, but because o f the promi­ nence o f the Latin language. N orth Africa became Arabized when Latin retreated long before the arrival o f the Arabs. By the time the Arabs con­ quered N orth Africa, the Latin language was weak, and it was easy to dislodge Berber, which was not and in fact never has been the language o f a nation. O ne would say that Marçais was much influenced by Darwinism, which was indeed predominant in the social sciences and even in the literature o f the day. Cultures, it would seem, are like species. Basically what Marçais is implying is that Latin in N orth Africa was swept away by Arabic, so that, by the logic o f things, Arabic now in decline can be swept away by the language o f a presumably superior civilization, that is, French, a Romance language. As one can see, Marçais does not make use o f the opposition between the Arabs and the Berbers, hence the unimportance o f the Kahina in his text. He still shares with the other accounts the myth o f Roman N orth Africa since the Romans had ruled it in the past, as well as the myth o f the

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mission civilisatrice since the French were supposed to civilize, that is to Westernize, N orth Africa. Marçais’ text seems, however, more program­ matic. To make N orth Africa a Western region again, one would assume, is to promote French language and culture. Marçaiss text is unusual in that he tends to ignore the Berbers. Curi­ ously enough, in so doing, his whole program is intended to change them, to make them Western, whereas the previous colonial historians focused on the population in order to exclude them or to justify their exclusion. T he Berbers were excluded on the ground that they have not met a modi­ cum o f civilization, the Arabs because they were its enemies. The impact o f Marçaiss scholarship amongst academicians was rela­ tively limited.64 His program found greater success in the political arena. A young officer who was trained by Marçais successfully implemented his “ideas”: his name is Marshal Lyautey.65 An African Joan of Arc It was during the colonial period, probably at the turn o f the twentieth century, that an anonymous account o f the Kahina was published with a very suggestive title: Une Jeanne d'Arc Africaine.66 The African Joan o f Arc is, o f course, the Kahina. From the outset a parallel is drawn between the two heroines: both women were extraordinary female leaders, both o f them heroically fought the invaders, and both o f them were motivated by an unquestionable patriotism. N or is this all. Both women were accused, be­ cause o f their uncanny courage, o f sorcery; they both died at the age o f thirty by fire—Joan o f Arc was burnt alive at the stake, the Kahina died in the blaze she herself set. The text is made o f two major narratives. The first tells o f a battle between the Byzantines and the Arabs when the former were defeated under the leadership o f Gregory. This battle, the narrative states, was avenged later by Charles Martel who crushed the Arabs in the battle o f Poitiers (732). The second narrative o f the text tells o f the Kahina and her fight against the Arabs. Kusayla is mentioned as a Jew who was defeated by Hassân (not by 'U m ar b. 'Alt and Zuhayr b. Qays). The defeat is ex­ plained as a result o f the alliance between the nomadic population and the Arabs, who share the same origin. After the death o f the Kusayla, the Kahina was proclaimed a queen. She was twenty years old then. Even though the first battle is described in this narrative, along with details regarding the victory over the Arabs and the liberation o f prisoners, there is no mention o f any adoption o f an Arab son. However, the narrative clearly states the cause o f the ultimate defeat o f the Kahina. Having trans­

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formed her Berber tribes, all o f them peasants, into furious warriors, she thus incited jealousy in the hearts o f Berber leaders. As soon as the Arabs came back, the Berber leaders rushed to join the enemies. Betrayed and alone, the Kahina was defeated. The text, in fact, narrates two struggles against the Arabs: the first one was led by the Byzantines, and the second one was carried out by the Berbers under Jewish leadership. In the first, the Arabs won, but soon lost when Charles Martel avenged Gregory. In the second, the Kahina won initially, but then was defeated. Since the text presents the struggle be­ tween Arabs and Byzantines (Christians) and Jews as historical and it is presented in a spirit o f retaliation, the reader might well ask: Was the Kahina avenged? France, under the leadership o f Charles Martel, avenged the Byzantines, and the text is explicit about this. But what is implicit is the fact that French conquest o f Algeria was a retaliation against the killing o f the Kahina. Whereas, in the first narrative the author felt the need to men­ tion the battle o f Poitiers to make the connection between Charles Martel and Gregory, in the second narrative the connection is obvious, for the colonial reader knows that France is now in Algeria as a result o f a victo­ rious conquest. Ultimately, it is the French who are the real heroes o f the historical struggle against the Arabs. T he Jews, along with the Berbers, are part o f France. The Kahina herself is a Jew, and moreover she is a Joan o f Arc. Indeed, the author makes another comparison between the two hero­ ines that reveals a very interesting colonial manipulation o f symbols. It is easy to see that though the Kahina predates Joan Arc by several centuries, yet, it is not Joan o f Arc who is the European Kahina, but the other way around. It is not only that the author, writing to a French audience, ex­ plains the unknown, the Kahina, by the known, Joan o f Arc, simply by suggesting a title that makes the Kahina appear as a predecessor o f Joan Arc. Instead, it is also because the author is especially eager to set Joan o f Arc as a model, alone on a pedestal. Indeed, she writes: One discovers in the two heroic women, reserving, however, to Joanne of Arc the rank that places her above her predecessor, the same genius in perseverance and the same virtue in the supreme resolutions.67 This comparison is not only intended to favor, but also to hide, better yet, to appropriate the Kahina and make her disappear in Joan o f Arc. In addition to the secondary rank given to the Kahina, French symbolism

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situates itself like colonization in N orth Africa. As a French heroine, a French symbol, Joan o f Arcs territory is extended to and occupies the Maghrib and subordinates it. Stated plainly, in this text Joan o f Arc is double: she is herself and she is the Kahina; like colonial France, she is herself and she is Algeria. T he Kahina, changed and converted, was stripped to become a lesser Joan o f Arc o f Africa that was widely used, especially in novels, thus root­ ing French symbolism in N orth Africa. W hen a Frenchman refers to the Kahina as a Joan o f Arc, s/he denies the Kahina, and, by the same token, claims Joan o f Arc as a heroine for both France and N orth Africa. W hen a N orth African hypothetically refers to the Kahina as a Joan o f Arc, that simply means that colonization has reached its ultimate goal. O ne more thing: not only does the author o f this text not mention his or her name, but s/he also claims that the account o f the Kahina is from a manuscript written by an Arab historian by the name o f Mohammed Ibn-Sassi. Here again, as with colonial historians, this account gains cred­ ibility from an Arab historian. But in this case, the Arab historian is very likely invented. For the author did not want to produce an account in which the Kahina and Kusayla were not Jews. Plus, using an unknown authors name may also be a strategy o f persuasion. To refer to an un­ known author may be as impressive as, or even more impressive than, referring to an author such as Ibn Khaldûn, whom everybody supposedly knows already. The Jewish Queen In almost all the texts we have examined in the colonial period up to this point, the Kahina is a Berber Jewish heroine. Her description as a Berber counted most however, and it was indeed through this that the authors could write (or re-write) a colonial mythology. As we have seen, this description was intended to promote the Berber myth and eventually create breaches in Algerian society by dividing it between Arabs and Berbers, nomad and sedentary. In all o f these accounts, the Kahina’s description as Jewish plays only a secondary role. H er being Jewish served only to distin­ guish the Jewish population o f N orth Africa and classify them as a part o f a

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O ther texts in this same period stressed the Kahinas identification as Jewish while denying her identification as a Berber. O ne of these is Slouschz’s account o f the Kahina.68 But it is interesting to note that even though Slouschz drew heavily on Fournel, whose account we have already dis­ cussed, the difference between the two is fundamental. Whereas Fournel

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uses the Kahina to consolidate the Berber myth, Slouschz not only reverses the situation, but goes even further by presenting the Kahina as a Jew and denying her Berber origin. However, Slouschz’s account o f the Kahina’s deeds is exactly the same as Fournel’s. Thus, there is no need to reproduce Slouschz’s account o f the Kahina. But let us see how he presents her ori­ gins: Though spread out over the entire Maghrib, the Djeraoua estab­ lished and declared themselves independents. Around 481, their religious leader, who was probably descendant from the family o f Aronid, some of the great-priests of Jerusalem, was crowned king of Djeraoua. They were leaders of Jewish origin. The Kahina should be considered their last representative that the Muslims encoun­ tered during the invasion as the only solid authority in the regions that escaped Byzantine domination.69 Slouschz intends to establish a relationship between the Jews o f N orth Africa and those o f Asia. The Arab conquest, which was catastrophic for other inhabitants, benefited the Jewish population in both regions. It was thanks to the Arab conquest that the Jews were unified in N orth Africa: Thus from the beginning o f the emergence o f Islam in Africa, the local Judaism was enriched with a double wave of Jewish immigra­ tion: primitive Jews from Yemeni origins and urban Jews o f Asia, equally familiar with Arab language and customs.70 We are in effect in the presence o f another myth: the myth o f Jewish N orth Africa. N orth Africa, according to Slouschz, was inhabited for ages by Jews who were not merely a part o f the population, but rather its rulers. These Jews were not Berbers, but Jewish by race {“more Jewish by race than by religion”).71 The Arab conquest caused the immigration -of Jews from the East. Slouschz tends to justify and reinforce the new situa­ tion o f the Algerian Jew. The Jews, because o f their religion, were consid­ ered distinct from the rest o f the local people, who were all Muslims. At first the Jews were encouraged to seek French citizenship, which was even­ tually granted to all Algerian Jews by the décret Crémieux.72 The Jews, who were given equal status with Europeans, were differenti­ ated from the Berbers ethnically rather than on religious grounds. Slouschz gives a justification for this. By relating the Kahina to the Jews o f Jerusa­ lem, Slouschz distinguishes them from the local populations— Berbers and Arabs alike. The earliest Jews were not Berber because they came from Jerusalem; the latest were not Arabs, as they came from Babylon and Yemen.

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In Slouschz’s first book, he does not set the Jews in opposition to the Arabs or to the Berbers, but he makes a distinction between them. Both Muslims and Jews "live anyway on good terms” (vivent d'ailleurs en bonne entente).73 This opposition appears later in a book written by Slouschz in different circumstances.74 We will return to Slouschz later on. At any rate, the opposition between Arabs and Jews appears in R. Le Tourneaus revi­ sion o f Charles-André Juliens work.75 We have already mentioned Juliens legend o f the Kahina, which was taken from Gautier. His text, however, was revised three decades later. O nly a few lines were added: In fact, we know litde more about her than her name, her renown and her savage resistance, nurtured, as it seems, by Berber patrio­ tism and Jewish faith.76 These lines, though few, made this version completely different from Gautiers. It is important to mention that the situation in the 1950s, though still colonial, was different from that o f the 1930s when the text was first published. T he colonial enterprise was increasingly uncertain. Two N orth African countries would soon become independent (Morocco and Tunisia, both in 1956), and the Algerian resistance against the French would soon become as fierce and bloody as ever. In spite of, or maybe because of, the French effort to obliterate the Arabic aspect o f N orth Africa, Arab nation­ alism, which had developed in the East, spread in the Maghrib. The Alge­ rian resistance was Arab nationalist in two senses: it was aware o f the Arabness o f Algeria, and it sympathized with Arab nationalism. At that time another nationalism had emerged in the East: Jewish nationalism or Zionism. The opposition between the two ideologies had intensified, espe­ cially after the creation o f Israel and the first Israeli-Arab war (1948-49). In addition to the opposition o f East versus West and Islam versus Chris­ tianity, a new opposition emerged—Arab versus Jew, a subject for subse­ quent discussion. In short, the Kahina was a symbol o f Jewish N orth Africa in the colo­ nial period and remained so in the post-colonial period. We shall return to this issue later on. The Anti-Jewish Queen The Kahina was used mythically in the colonial period especially in Algeria, a N orth African country o f extreme importance for the French. It was not only because Algeria was believed to be the scene o f the

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Kahinas resistance that French scholars wrote so much about her, but also because the Kahina was a symbol o f the encounter and the clash between three civilizations. More significant, however, was the fact that Algeria presented a set of problems which could be solved mythically (and/ or violently).77 To convince oneself o f the legitimacy o f the colonial en* terprise, to educate people and raise them to believe that colonization is not only acceptable but normal, requires a history written in such a way that the whole enterprise is justified; in so doing, one creates mythol­

ogy-78 Tunisia, though it was the real arena o f the battle since it was the Ifnqiya o f the Arab historians, was different from Algeria. First o f all, it was only a protectorate; second it had an elite, not found in Algeria, formed especially by the great efforts o f Khayr al-Dîn (1810-89). Tunisia also had a relatively homogenous population. As a result, the use o f the Kahina in this context was not imperative. In Tunisia the Kahina was used only in the context o f the question o f the Jewish population. Once Tunisia came under the French yoke, Jews in Tunisia were considered French citi­ zens. The Kahina was used in two ways, which were not only different but completely opposed to each other. The first one we have already men­ tioned: the use o f the Kahina by the Tunisian Jews as a symbol o f resis­ tance against the invaders. The second is expressed by David Cazès,79 a teacher at the Ecole Normale Israélite Orientale in Paris (founded in 1867). The Kahina, according to his account, was not Jewish at all. Indeed, she was a Berber queen who persecuted the N orth African Jews. The proof? A poem in Hebrew with Arabic characters communicated to Cazès by an erudite Jew o f Constantine. The poem exists as an old tradition in both Algeria and Tunisia. Here is the poem:80 O children o f Yeschouroun, Do not forget your persecutors: The Chaldeas, Caesar, Hadrian and the Kahiya, That damned woman, more cruel than all the others com­ bined, She gave your virgins to her warriors; God has created her to make us expiate our sins But God hates those who make his people suffer. The refrain is: Give me back my children To mourn me (after my death);

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I have left them In the hands o f the Kahiya. For purposes o f analysis, the poem should be considered as a part o f Cazès’ account rather than as an independent text.81 T he poem is pre­ sented along w ith Cazès’ interpretation o f it to achieve a cognitive goal. It serves first o f all to corroborate th at the Kahina was a nonJewish Berber who was hateful and a killer o f the Jews. T he authority o f the poem is drawn from its age (there is, in Algeria and Tunisia, a vague and very old tradition) and also from the authority o f its narra­ tor, the erudite Jew. In other words, the poem is a cognitive object which has been transm itted jointly by three hierarchical senders. T he poem comes first from a very old tradition. A tradition means a collec­ tive object formed by generations who have been transm itting the poem through time. As such this tradition is credible given its collective memory. T he description o f the second sender as an erudite Jew is intended to persuade on two points: first to persuade o f his “authority” based on extensive knowledge, and second to suggest th at a Jew wellversed in Jewish N orth African knowledge could prove th at the Kahina was a non-Jew, and that she was anti-Jewish. T he narrators authority is certified by Cazès, who acts as an epistemic subject, th at is, an author whose function is not only to construct knowledge o f his own, b u t also to evaluate the narrator’s knowledge and recognize it as valuable. In short, there are three argum ents o f authority in Cazès’ book: first, the historian who is presented as having a knowledge based on his reading in the history o f the Jews o f N orth Africa and on his own experience; second, the erudite individual who is by definition knowledgeable. The third argum ent, doubtless the strongest, is the tradition itself. For it consists o f the com m on knowledge o f a group. O r to p u t it differently, though the tradition is an object o f knowledge, it also refers to a group that it represents. But ultimately, it is the historian subject who con­ structs his text in such a way as to achieve w hat we may call a cogni­ tive agenda: that is, to persuade readers o f the cruelty o f the Kahina toward the Jews. This, however, is only a tactic to achieve the major cognitive goal that Cazès expresses from the outset in his book. He actually intends to re­ spond to the hostility manifested against the Jews in N orth Africa and particularly in Tunisia: The new French elements who have just arrived in Tunisia, see the hand of the Jews in all the trials they experience, in all the ob­

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stades they face. Commerce is sluggish, the cost of the land is increasing, the rent is going up; it is the Jews who are the cause. The haute [central] bank refuses to discount the bills that do not inspire enough trust, the great establishments in France refuse to launch the more or less dubious enterprises that are proposed to them; it is the Jews that should be accused. Finally, all the Tuni­ sian products are considered overseas goods when they enter France; it is the Jews who maintain this situation, and it is them that it benefits. Let us be clear however. Do the Jews in Tunisia enjoy a privileged situation? No.82 Cazès was a member o f the Alliance Israélite Universelle (founded in 1860), and wrote his essay after having accomplished the mission o f cre­ ating educational projects in Tunisia on the Alliances behalf. No wonder that we find in his book an echo o f the Alliance program. The Alliance program, especially in its beginning, consisted o f defending the Jews against persecution not only in specific countries but all over the world. But later, it added to this program the task o f liberating the Jews through education.83 In his essay Cazès defends the Jews against anti-Semitic accusations by showing that the Jews never enjoyed any privilege in N orth Africa, and, in fact, were persecuted. Cazès talks about the social situation o f the Jews in three periods: the pre-Islamic period, the Islamic period, and finally the French colonial period. In all three periods the Jews were persecuted. They were massacred by the Kahina in the first period. They were forced to pay special taxes as non-Muslims in the second period, whereas the Christians, thanks to the intervention o f European governments, were often exempted. In the French colonial period, things had changed but not really for the better. The Jews remained the object o f calumny and accusations. As we can see, the Kahina serves to achieve Cazès’ twofold goal: to refute the accusations made against the Jews, and to prove that the Jews were persecuted in N orth Africa. There is, however, more in this text. Cazès stresses the importance o f the Jews not only by giving their num ber (by his estimate, one-third o f the population) but also by de­ scribing their good qualities: Among all the indigenous subjects, [a Jew] is the most easily as­ similated. He has in his hands the capital and the commerce of the Regency. It is he who constitutes the most intelligent and the most active element of the population. It is on him that France should first count in order to introduce in the Tunisian popula­ tion its language, its spirit, and its civilization.84

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Cazès attempts to achieve a larger goal by describing the Jews in this way, and by presenting them as the most im portant part o f Tunisian soci­ ety. The Tunisian Jew, according to Cazès, is able, given his qualities and his position, to serve as a tool for realizing the explicit program o f the colonial enterprise— la mission civilisatrice. The Jew is different from the rest o f the population not so much because o f religion, but racially. The Jew is an early inhabitant o f N orth Africa who came from the East. There­ fore he is a Jewish Jew and not a Berber Jew. His Jewishness is authentic. Though a Jew, he can be French. Moreover he is the one through whom the Frenchification o f N orth Africa is possible. Cazès tended in fact to combine the program o f the Alliance and the program o f French colonialism in one. Both the French government and the Alliance sought to civilize N orth Africa, the first one through the Jews, the second through the first. No wonder that the Alliance was so strongly criticized as a tool used by the French government to spread French lan­ guage and culture. This criticism was made by Jews from all over the world. T he program o f the Alliance had deviated from its original man­ date.85 The Kahina in Israel David Cazès and Nahum Slouschz, both o f whom wrote in the colonial period, were the founders o f the N orth African Jewish tradition about the Kahina. Cazès, though he denies the Kahinas Jewishness, remains a point o f reference because o f the poem he collected. Its interpretation is one o f the central anti-themes that Jewish historians would later try to destroy or sometimes manipulate. Slouschz, conversely, is a point o f reference be­ cause he sustained, by using historical and ethnographic data, the Jewishness o f the Kahina. Both historians, however, were concerned with their own contexts— Slouschz sought to justify the décret Crémieux which integrated the Algerian Jews into the European community. Cazès wanted, within the framework o f the Alliance Israélite, to create a Jewish consciousness by drawing the attention o f Jews all over the world to the oppression o f the Jews. The texts o f Cazès and Slouschz would soon be appropriated by the Jews but in a different context. In 1948, Israel was created as a homeland for Jews from all over the world. A massive migration took place and heterogeneous populations from all parts o f the world came together to constitute the state o f Israel.86 In this kaleidoscopic society, these populations were unified by the Zi­ onist ideology— basically that the Jews o f the world have the right to and

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should constitute a nation. But the populations, because o f their diversity, did not have a common identity. It was then that the effort to write a history o f the Diaspora was undertaken. Haim Hirschberg is the pioneer o f N orth African Jewish studies. In his monumental book, A History o f the Jews in North Africa, originally written in Hebrew, he devotes an entire and significant chapter to the Kahina.87 As further evidence o f his perception o f the importance o f the legend, he elsewhere devotes an article to its analysis.88 Hirschberg makes it clear that he is interested in the Kahina because she is considered a Jew either by origin or by conversion. Hirschberg relates the legend o f the Kahina as it had been reported by Ibn Khaldûn. H e then undertakes a critique o f the Arabic sources. He is the only histo­ rian who pays attention to the narrative o f W âqidi, which has been ig­ nored by all other historians, both medieval and modern. Through this analysis, Hirschberg is able to discern an aspect o f the mythological di­ mension o f the legend, basically that the story o f Khâlid was created to glorify Islam and propagate it among the Berbers. Hirschberg gives special attention to the narrative o f Ibn Khaldûn and more credit to the narrative o f Wâqidî. He then elaborates his own hypothesis from a most unexpected point o f view. By examining the Kahinas names, he provides us with a new interpretation. He uses the poem collected by Cazès to make his point. In this poem the name appears as Kahiya, not Kahina. Cazès assumes that the name is the same. T he relationship between the two names can be explained by Arabic paleography. In Ancient Arabic script, the k â fis quite like a dâl. In the name o f the Kahiya, which Hirschberg thinks is the real name o f the Kahina, the k â f might have been read as a dâl. Therefore, we have the name Dahiya, which is one o f the Kahinas names. But the major issue still remains: what about the name Kahina? It has been maintained, according to Hirschberg, that the name Kahina in Arabic, Hebrew, and Punic means something like a priest or a person who tells the future. In the whole o f ancient Hebrew literature there is nothing like the name Kahina, instead, the words used to designate a prophetess are nebi’a and ba'alat'ob. Furthermore, Punic was not spoken by the Berbers, and He­ brew was unknown to them. Here again the explanation, according to Hirschberg, rests on paleography. The ancient Arabic script did not have diacritics, and khy might have been transformed into Kahina, especially as the word is known in Arabic. Once accepted, the Arabs started developing stories to explain the name. Hirschberg then attacks the central theme o f the Jewishness o f the Kahina. He strongly asserts that her activities do not reveal a Jewish spirit. Hirschberg

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does not even exclude the idea expressed in the poem portraying the Kahina as a persecutor o f the Jews. Although Hirschberg criticizes all the Arabic classical narratives about the Kahina, he asserts that the Kahina led the struggle against the Arabs and that she died with her sons. O ne can see how Hirschberg turns Cazèss Kahiya into a Jewish woman whose name was confused by the Arab histo­ rians into the Kahina. But the character herself is quite different from both that o f Cazès and the Arab historians, and especially that o f Wâqidî. The Kahina o f Hirschberg is Kahiya mentioned in Cazès, except that she is Jewish. She is also the same Kahina o f W âqidî, but again she is Jewish. However, despite her Jewishness, she is not a Jewish leader, in Hirschbergs text, nor is her struggle against the Arab a religious one. She is a secular Jew. Thus, by a paleographic trick, Hirschberg succeeded in constructing a “secular” Jewish Kahina, who might have persecuted her population. This is different from any previous image o f her. H irschberg expresses a specific concern o f the Israeli ideologues in the early phase o f the creation o f Israeli ideology. Israel had been set up by European Jews who brought a secularist Zionist ideology from Europe. W hile the foundation o f the state is religious, since it derives its justification for a Jewish hom eland from the Bible, its principles are secular. This aspect is one o f the unique characteristics o f the state o f Israel. In undertaking a history o f the Jews o f N orth Africa, Hirschberg did not intend to write a religious history, or a history o f Judaism in N orth Africa, but rather a history o f the Jews. This approach was intended to link the past o f the Jews in the Diaspora to the state o f Israel. In other words, the history o f the Jews did not stop with the destruction o f their Temple in 70; it continued. It was not linked to a space, but to a people, to the Jews in France or N orth Africa, or anywhere, and it is precisely this attem pt which creates the identity o f the Jews. The goal was not simply to gather fragments o f history in a book, but rather to unify a heterogeneous society through history. A history o f the Jews in N orth Africa is first and foremost a history o f the Jews writ large. In this regard, the Kahina is not only a N orth African Jew, she is a Jew, and as such she is a symbol which unifies all Jews. The fact still remains, however: the Kahina is a N orth African Jew in Hirschbergs account. As such, if she symbolically unifies the Jews and excludes non-Jews, she has also the same function among Jews themselves. As a N orth African, the Kahina symbolizes the N orth African— if not all Middle Eastern—Jews and excludes the others, that is, those who are nei­ ther N orth Africans nor Middle Easterners, but Europeans.

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T he Kahina was indeed claimed by the Oriental Jews in Israel. André Chouraqui, one o f the best known Israeli N orth African historians, who undertook a history o f the Jews o f N orth Africa, considers the work o f Hirschberg only a preliminary account.89 Like Hirschberg, he devotes a whole chapter to the episode o f the Kahina, but the Kahina o f Chouraqui is very different from the Kahina o f Hirschberg. From the outset, Chouraqui maintains that the Kahina is a Jew by quoting from a translation o f the Bayân o f Ibn Tdhârî: “Hassan, après avoir détruit Carthage, demanda alors quel était le chef le plus puissant en Ifiqiya; et on lui désigna une femme qui gouvernait les Berbères et qui était généralement connue sous le non de la Kahéna. Elle demeure, lui dit-on, dans le monts Aurès. Cette femme juive [emphasis mine] prédisait l’avenir et tout ce quelle annonçait ne manquait pas de se réaliser. Elle tuée, Hassan ne trouvait plus ni résistance ni rivalité. Hassan marcha contre elle.”90 This passage is put in quotes by Chouraqui, and the footnote number at the end o f the passage refers to page 25 o f the translation by Fagnan. W hen we look for this in Fagnans quotation, we do not find it. Instead, we find this passage which says something quite different: “Après avoir pris quelques jours de repos à Kayrouan, ce chef (Hassân) demanda aux habitants quel était le prince d’Ifriqiyya le plus puissant, pour aller ou anéantir son autorité ou le forcer à se convertir ‘c’est,’ lui dit-on, une femme appelé El-Kahina, qui habite dans l’Aurès: tous les Berbères lui obéissent; elle tuée, tout le Mahreb se soumettra à toi et tu ne trouveras plus ni rivalité ni résistance.’ Il se mit donc en marche avec ses troupes, et la Kahina, qui l’apprit, descendit de la montagne avec ses forces dont le nombre dépassait tout ce qu’on peut dire.”91 The first version is not the same as the second; and the major informa­ tion that Chouraqui seeks to convey to his reader, on the authority o f Ibn 'Idhârî, is that the Kahina is Jewish. He could not find the information anywhere, and even the Jewish writers are divided on the issue. Instead o f using Slouschz or Hirschberg, Chouraqui uses a N orth African historian to give his account more credibility. Chouraqui also reports the poem found by Cazès, which describes the Kahina’s oppression o f her people. Chouraqui sees in this poem, as well as in Ibn al-Athîr’s assertion (reported by Gautier) o f the unjust policy o f the

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Kahina, an attem pt to explain her defeat. Chouraqui, however, does not mention any scorched earth policy carried out by the Kahina. As for the defeat o f the Kahina, Chouraqui mentions both uthe cruelty o f her reign” and “the inherent inability o f the Maghreb to set itself up as a single independent entity.”92 Both are, o f course, explanations developed by Gautier. After the death o f the Kahina, Chouraqui continues, the Berbers sur­ rendered and, at the same time, the process o f conversion to Islam started. T he Berbers converted massively, not only, as Gautier thinks, because they wanted to survive, but also because they were already prepared by the previous work o f conversion which had been undertaken by Christians and Jews. Chouraqui writes: This mass conversion was made possible only by the centuries of persuasion to a monotheistic faith to which the Berbers had been subjected by the earlier spread of Judaism and Christianity.93 But whereas the Christianized Berbers converted— and by the twelfth century Christianity had disappeared completely from N orth Africa— the Jews remain, until today, faithful to Judaism. In Hirschbergs account, though the Kahina is Jewish, her struggle is not conducted in the name o f Judaism. She herself is a Jew in name only, and her policy is by no means dictated by Judaism. Chouraqui completely reverses the hypothesis, claiming not only that is she Jewish but that she leads the struggle in the name o f Judaism against the Arabs. Chouraqui points it out clearly: The last struggles of the Jewish people prior to modern times go back then not to the struggle against Rome in the 1st century, in Palestine, as often asserted; but to the 7 th century, against the Arabs, in the land of Africa.94 Though both Hirschberg and Chouraqui are Israelis, they do not have the same concerns, since they are expressing the concerns o f different so­ cial groups. For Hirschberg, a European Jew, the issue is to elaborate a history, that is a mythology, which unifies Jews all over the world and provides them with a common heritage. C houraqui is from the N orth African Jews o f Israel, a m em ber o f a group w hich is not considered socially equal to the European Jews.93 T he N o rth African Jews are in an inferior situation in relation to the

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European Jews: they are less educated and poorer, and, m ore im p o r­ tantly, they participated in the m aking o f Israel only by a massive m igration, bringing w ith them a traditional, underdeveloped original w orld, alien to w hat Israel w ants to be— a m odern, W estern, dem o­ cratic country.96 D uring the period o f the British M andate in Palestine, the Zionist lead­ ers undertook a fierce struggle to force Great Britain to grant them inde­ pendence. But this was not the highest price paid for the foundation o f Israel. Soon, Israel was engaged in a continuing struggle against the Arab states which were radically opposed to it. C houraqui makes the Kahina a leader at the beginning o f the struggle against the Arabs, who are deemed dangerous for the survival o f the Jews. He sees in this a m irror o f the current struggle for the survival o f Israel. T he Israeli o f N orth African origins is thereby elevated, and can claim to be participating fully in the struggle by virtue o f having led, in the past, the struggle that Israel is continuing today. For N orth African Israelis, the struggle was begun by N orth African Jews under the leadership o f the Kahina, long ago, in the seventh century. T he m yth o f the Kahina inaugurating the fight against the Arabs is likely to be accepted only by the N orth African group, which wants to stress its importance in the new society. T he same myth does not work for the Europeans, who are inclined to ignore or underm ine it. Nonetheless, the Kahina remains a Jew claimed by Jews w hether in Israel or in the Diaspora.97 In the various French studies we have examined, two things catch the eye immediately: the legend o f the Kahina is no longer a monopoly o f the Arab historians; it has been appropriated, and now belongs also to the memory o f the French colonial historians. Secondly, the character o f the Kahina switched completely from the position o f an anti-hero, obstructing the spread o f the faith, to the position o f a hero resisting the Arab invasion and leading a nationalist battle for the independence o f N orth Africa. T he legend, how­ ever, has gone through different periods in different circumstances. In the pre-colonial period, it tells us mythically about the attitude o f the French toward N orth Africa. Through the legend o f the Kahina, we can see the opposition between Islam and Christianity which characterized the pre-co­ lonial period. But more importantly, through the legend o f the Kahina who is presented as a non-Christian, responsible for the retreat o f Christianity from N orth Africa, we can easily see how the myth o f the superiority o f Christianity over Islam was articulated. Even when the Kahina disappeared as a Berber leader, her disappearance served to strongly articulate this myth.

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H er deeds were attributed to a Christian and therefore added to the achieve­ ments o f the Christians. This m yth expressed jointly the fear o f the Mus­ lims which until the eighteenth century was predominant in Christian Europe. As soon as the situation changed in the nineteenth century, the ac­ counts o f the Kahina changed accordingly. They no longer expressed the opposition between Islam and Christianity nor did they reflect fear o f the Muslims. Instead they reflected the situation w ithin the French society in the colonies. Especially in Algeria when the French faced a num ber o f social issues related to the past, the legend o f the Kahina provided a means to solve them. It was thanks to the Kahina that the French historians could m aintain that Algeria was not Arab but Berber and that the Arabs were themselves invaders. It was thanks to the Kahina that the French could divide Algerian society into Arabs and Berbers, nomads and seden­ tary people. T he legend also reflected the different ideologies in conflict in the French colonial societies. T he Kahina as a Berber allowed Mercier to stress the opposition between the Arabs and the Berbers in reaction to the Bureau Arabe policy. At the same time, she served Gautier as a Berber originally from the Zenata, and therefore a foreigner, to make a supple­ mentary division, this time between sedentary and nomadic populations. For the French Jews, however, she served as a means to demonstrate the ancient roots o f the Jews o f N orth Africa who were different from the rest o f the populations and supposedly in need o f civilization. T he m yth o f the Kahina, as historical discourse, served to m aintain and justify the colonial enterprise on the ideological level. However, it goes w ithout saying that the French were launching violent operations to oppress the nomads, to despoil the Arabs, to Frenchify the country. This mythical dimension has often been neglected in the studies o f French colonization o f N orth Af­ rica.98 However colonial scholarship not only participated in justifying the colonial practices, it also has enduring consequences. It operates on the level o f the imaginary and participates in the creation o f identities and memories. Prior to the colonial period, the Kahina was either om itted from the Jewish historical discourse or m entioned as an anti-hero. Colo­ nial historiography created the Kahina as a Jewish character even though that identification was then only secondary. However, this description has become central with Jewish writers, especially since the creation o f Israel. W hether in the work o f N ahum Slouschz or that o f André Chouraqui, the narrative o f the Kahina is derived from colonial scholarship: from EmileFelix G autier as well as from the colonial version o f Ibn K haldûn."

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Notes 1. For instance, Languier de Tassy, H istoire du royaume d'Alger (Amsterdam: H. du Sauzet, 1727). 2. Even though the negative image seems to have been prevalent after the sixteenth century, negative/positive images were still contrasted some­ times in the same period and sometimes even in the same authors writ­ ing; for instance, see G. Postel, La république des Turcs (Poitiers: Ed. de Marnef, 1560). 3. For more details, see L. Valensi, Venise et ¡a Sublime Porte (Paris: Hachette, 1987). English translation by A. Donner, The Birth o f the Despot (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993). 4. J. Delumeau, La peur en Occident XTVe-XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Fayard, 1978), pp. 262-72. 5. D. Cardonne, Histoire de l A ’ frique et de l'Espagne sous la domination des Arabes (Paris: Saillant, 1765). 6. Ibid., p. viii. 7. It seems that various manuscripts of Arabic historiography were at the disposal of Cardonne, although he mentions only Nuwayrî (Novairi in the text). Cardonne writes: “Thus everything concerning the affairs of the Moors in Africa is from Arab manuscripts in the Bibliothèque du Roi,” pp. ix-x. 8. Cardonne, Histoire, pp. 49-50. 9. Delumeau, La peur, pp. 262-72. 10. F. Lestringant, “L’obsession turque,” in Actes du colloque Guillaume Postel, Avranches, 1981 (Paris: Edition de Maisme, 1985). 11. M. Otter, “De la conquête de l’Afrique par les Arabes,” in Histoire de lA ’ cadémie Royale des Inscriptions et des Belles-lettres, 1747-48, vol. XXI, pp. 111-25. 12. Ibid., p. 112. 13. H. Lebeau, Histoire du Bas-Empire (Paris: Firman Didot, first edition 1757-1817). This edition contains 24 volumes. Lebeau had written 21 and died while working on volume 22. H. P. Ameilhon continued his work. The whole work was revised and edited by Saint Martin in 27 volumes between 1824 and 1834. It is this edition that I am using (Paris: Firman Didot, 182434). 14. Ibid., Saint Martin edition, vol. 12, p. 46. This assertion is however rejected by Saint Martin, who wrote in the margin of Lebeau’s book: “This conjecture is made by the Academician Otter. . . . It does not seem plausible at all. Nothing indeed prevents one from admitting that at the same time when imperial officers were seeking to defend the rest o f Roman Africa, the indigenous population of Africa waged, on their side, a fierce war against the Arabs” (pp. 46—47). The assertion that the Kahina was the patriarch Jean is not, however, found in Otter’s text. 15. J. Delumeau, La peur, pp. 262-72.

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16. W. Marçais, “Un siècle de recherches sur le passé de l’Algérie musulmane,” in Histoire et historiens de l A ’ lgérie (Paris: Alcan, 1931), pp. 139— 75. 17. D. Reig, Homo Orientaliste (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1988). 18. E. Mercier was elected conseiller municipal on May 4, 1884, and mayor of Constantine two weeks later, on May 18, 1884. He was reelected in May 1900, but resigned in December of the same year due to ill health. 19. E.-E Gautier, UE. Mercier, historien de l’Afrique moderne,” in L’A frique à travers ses fib (Paris: Librairie Orientale, 1944), p. 45. 20. E. Mercier, "Notice sur la Kahina,” in L A ’ nnuaire de la Société Archéologique de Constantine, 1868, pp. 241-54. 21. Merciers writings about the Kahina also include “Les héros de la Résistance berbère. Kusayla— La Kahina,” in Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société Archéologique du Département de Constantine, 1882; Hùtoire de l'établissement des Arabes dans l Afrique septentrionale (Constantine: 1875); La condition de ¡a femme musulmane dans l A ’ frique septentrionale (Algiers: Ed. A. Jourdan, 1895), pp. 123-25. Mercier was very interested in the Kahina. Even though he was not a novelist, he did try writing a novel entitled “Kahena” which was sent in 1895 to either L’Algérie or L’A frique Illustrée. The novel was, however, lost because of the death of the director, M. Lissagary. 22. E. Mercier, “Notice sur la Kahina,” p. 251. 23. E. Mercier devoted two articles to the issue o f the origin o f the Berbers. The first is “Ethnographie de l’Afrique septentrionale. Notes sur l’origine du peuple berbère,” in Revue Africaine, vol. XV, 1871. Here is his conclusion: “We can say that there is nothing impossible in this hypothesis, which we can sum up in the following manner: a blond race, originally from Europe, had, without a doubt, very long ago, invaded Africa and settled in the northern littoral areas. The Celtic-type burials found in many places in Algeria are maybe the work of this pre-historic population. Finally, the blond [people] of Great Kabylia are probably the desecendants of that race.” “Ethnographie,” p. 431. The second article is significantly entitled “La race berbère. Véritable population de l’Afrique septentrionale,” in Société Archéologique de Constantine, vol. 39, 1905, pp. 23-59. In this article Mercier is more affirmative. The Berbers, in his opinion, are related to the Iberian and Celtic races. They were massively Romanized and deeply Christianized. After the Arab invasion, the Berbers were still very predominant demographically. It was rather the Arabs who were fused with the Berber population. Therefore the Arab invasion was a failure, according to Mercier. And Mercier quotes Gautier: “We admit today that the proportion of Arab blood in Africa Minor is infinitesimal. It is in­ habited by a homogenous Berber race and those that we call Arabs are [Arabs] only by language.” Mercier adds: “It is the first time that I have heard such a correct idea” (pp. 52-53). 24. V. Monteil, “Les Bureaux Arabes,” in Esprit, November 1961, pp. 575606.

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25. Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de l ’A lgérie contemporaine (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1964), p. 425. 26. R. Girardet, L’idée coloniale en France, 1871-1962 (Paris: La Table Ronde, 1972), p. 113. 27. For instance, £. Cat, Petite histoire de l A ’ lgérie (Algiers: Jourdan, 1889), pp. 143—46. This book is written as a school textbook for the sons of the colons in Algeria. Also R. De Lartigue, Monographie de l A ’ urès (Constantine: Imprimerie Marle-Audrino, 1904), pp. 182-188. This book, written by a lieutenant colonel was intended to inform the military regime in Algeria about the Aurès, still an unknown country for the French. Also G. Fure-Biguet, Histoire de l A ’ frique septentrionale sous la domination musulmane (Paris: Ed. Charles-Lavauzelle, 1905), pp. 25-26. This last-mentioned book, which has the same title as Merciers, is actually a vulgarization o f Merciers book. The author made it clear in his introduction: “The history o f this country has been written in such a clear way by Mr. Mercier whose great book should be studied by all people who, by profession or by taste, are interested in Algeria. My book, more modesdy, is addressed to readers who lack the necessary time or courage to attempt this study” (p. 6). 28. H. Fournel, Les Berbères, études sur la conquête de l A ’ frique par Us Arabes (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1875). This book is a new version of an early work which Fournel published in 1857, entitled Etudes sur la conquête de lA ’ frrique par Us Arabes (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1857). Though Fournel adds numerous references in his new version of the episode o f the Kahina, the text is the same; no changes were made. 29. Fournel, Les Berbères, pp. i-ii. 30. £. Daumas and Fabar, La Grande Kabylie (Paris: Hachette, 1847). 31. E. Renan, “L’exploration Scientifique,” in Revue des Deux Mondes, Sep­ tember, 1873, pp. 138-57. 32. K. Marx and F. Engels, On Cobnialism (New York: International Pub­ lishers, 1972), pp. 156-61. 33. J. Boulanger, “La Kahina,” in Bulletin de la Société de Géographie d A ’ lger et de l A ’ frique du Nord, no. 91, 1922, pp. 717-21. 34. E. Watbled, “L’insurrection Kabyle,” in Revue des Deux Mondes, No­ vember 1873, vol. 108, p. 625. 35. Augustin Bernard states that the Berbers come from the meetings of the Orient and Europe. “Psychologie des indigènes Nord-Africans,” in LAfrique Française, no. 7, July 1933, p. 372. Desperate to make the Berbers Europeans, other historians adopted the particularism of the Berbers to use them against the Arabs. “O ur Berbers are not only impermeable to the French influence. Their indomitable personality guards them from both the dominance of the Orient and that of the Occident.” In J. Despermet, Renseignements Coloniaux, nos. 8-9, August-September, 1938, p. 199. Finally, when the colonial enter­ prise was falling apart, the Berbers became Orientals as in the work of L.

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Balout, who "ties” them to the Orient and Africa. L’A frique Française, 1948, nos. 416-17, p. 262. 36. See, among others, £. Renan, "L’exploration”; also E.-F. Gautier, L’évolution de l A ’ lgérie 1830-1930 (Algiers: Publications du Comité National Métropolitain du Centenaire de l’Algérie), pp. 35-38, especially on Kabyle law (Kanoun), which he relates to the Roman law. 37. E. Guernier, La Berbérie, L’Islam et ta France (Paris: Ed. de l’Union Française, 1950), vol. 1, p. 251. 38. Ch. E. Dufourcq, "Berbérie et Ibérie médiévale,” in Revue Historique, 1968, pp. 297-302. 39. Ch. E. Dufourcq, "Kahina ou divine Damiènne?” in L’Algérianiste, no. 13, March 15, 1981, pp. 40-41. 40. Ibn K haldûn, H istoire des Berbères (Algiers: Im prim erie du Gouvernement, 1852). De Slane first published the Arabie text in 1847 and 1851; this was printed in Algiers, significantly enough under the auspices of the minister of war. He then published the translation between 1852 and 1856. This translation was regarded as important for the French government. Indeed Reinaud wrote in 1861: “L’Histoire des Berbères d’Ibn Khaldûn can not fail to draw the attention of the French government. With the establishment o f the French in Algeria, daily relations have occurred, relations of friendship and war between them [the French] and the tribes that occupy the interior.” "Ibn Khaldûn,” in Nouvelle biographie générale, 1861, vol. 25, p. 746. 41. J. Berque, “Vingt cinq ans de sociologie maghrébine,” in Annales, E.S.C., July-September, 1956, p. 308. 42. E.-F. Gautier, Les siècles obscurs du Maghreb (Paris: Payot, 1927). 43. Ibid., p. 240. 44. Ibid. p. 249. 45. Ibid., p. 248. Masinissa (d. 149 B.C.), was a Berber chief of exceptional qualities. He founded a kingdom that extended from Mauritania to Cyrenaica. He transformed the whole life of the Berbers, as he wanted to create a Berber nation. He encouraged agriculture and developed urban life. His kingdom was seen as dangerous for Rome. After his death, it was divided. Masinissa is now one of the most important heroes of the Berbers. 46. Ibid., p. 249. 47. Elsewhere, Gautier devotes a whole article just to this action: see “Un passage d’Ibn Khaldûn et du Bayan,” in Hespéris, vol. IV, 1924, pp. 305-12. 48. Gautier, Les siècles obscurs, p. 184. 49. Ibid., p. 243. 50. Ibid., pp. 244-45. 51. Ibid., pp. 11, 12, 24; also L’évolution de l A ’ lgérie, p. 38. 52. E.-F. Gautier, “Native Life in French North Africa,” in Geographical Review, New York, 1923, p. 29. 53. E.-F. Gautier, Les siècles obscurs, p. 197.

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54. E.-F. Gautier, VAlgérie et la métropole (Paris: Payot, 1920), p. viii. 55. R. Barthes, "Le discours de l’histoire,” in Social Science Information, vol. VI, August 1967, pp. 65-75. Also M. de Certeau, “L’histoire et le réel,” in Dialectiques, no. 14, 1976, pp. 42-62. 56. Emile Masqueray (1843-94) was an ethnographer, historian, archae­ ologist and linguist. His work is devoted to North Africa, especially to the Berber population. After many investigations in Jarjura, the Awrâs mountains, and the Mzab, his authority as a specialist in Algeria was established once and for all. He was appointed as the chair of “Histoire et antiquité de l’Afrique” and president of the Ecole de lettres d’Alger. His most important work is his doctoral thesis, published as Formation des cités chez les populations sédentaires de l A ’ lgérie (Paris: Leroux, 1886; reedited with an interesting introduction by F. Colonna, 1983). To the general public, Masqueray was known for his liter­ ary work, Souvenirs et visions d A ’ frique (Paris: E. Dentu, 1894; Second edition Algiers: A. Jourdan, 1914). For more details about Masqueray’s career, see A. Bernard, “Emile Masqueray,” in Revue Africaine, 1894, pp. 350-73. Also A. Rambaud, “Un pionnier de l’Afrique,” in Revue Blue, January 1895, pp. 16168 . 57. S. Gsell (1864-1923) was an archaeologist, geographer, and historian. Most of his monumental work is devoted to the pre-Islamic, Greek and Ro­ man period of North Africa. His numerous publications include Recherches archéobgiqtses en Algérie (Paris: E. Leroux, 1893); Les monuments antiques de l 'Algérie (Paris: EA.. Fontemoing, 1901); Histoire ancienne de l A ’ frique du Nord, (Paris: 1914-28), 8 vols. 58. A. Berthier, L’Algérie et son passé (Paris: Picard, 1951), p. 145. 59. Ch.-A. Julien, Histoire de l A ’ frique du Nord (Paris: Payot, 1931). En­ glish translation by John Petrie, History o f North Africa, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970). 60. W. Marçais, “Les siècles obscurs du Maghreb d’E.-F. Gautier,” first published in Revue Critique d ’Histoire et de Littérature, 1929, pp. 255—70; reprinted in William Marçais, Articles et conférences (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1961), pp. 69-82. 61. W. Marçais, “Comment l’Afrique du Nord a été arabisée,” first pub­ lished in Annales de l ’Institut d ’Etudes Orientales, Algiers, vol. IV, 1938, pp. 121; reprinted in William Marçais, Articles et conférences, pp. 171-84. 62. Marçais, Articles et conférences, p. 172. 63. Marçais, Articles et conférences. 64. We can certainly consider G. Marçais’s writings about this particular episode as reproductions of W. Marçais’ versions. G. Marçais, however, lacks the linguistic argumentation which makes the original more powerful. See G. Marçais, “L’Afrique du Nord sous la domination musulmane,” in L’A frique du Nordfrançaise dans l ’histoire (Lyon-Paris: Archat, 1937, pp. 131-42); La Berbérie musulmane, (Paris: Aubier, 1946), p. 23, pp. 27-35; “Le Moyen Age musulman,” in Initiation à l A ’ lgérie (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1957), pp.

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75-76; “La période arabe" in Histoire de l A ’ lgérie; edited by Louis Mouillesaux (Paris: 1962), pp. 96-97. Another author, G. H. Bousquet, adopts the same version as well as the same explanation of the Arabization and the eventual Frenchification of North Africa, in Les Berbères (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1956). This book was revised and republished in 1961 with this detail which reflects the continuation of the policy on minorities still retained by France: “In any case, if North Africa has regained independence from the foreigners, the Berbers have not gained theirs in relation to the central Arabophone power,” p. 72. The same edition was reprinted in 1962. 65. Hubert Lyautey served in Algeria in the Bureau Arabe. He was against the policy o f military repression and instead he preferred a policy less repres­ sive, less military, and more cultural. Having been appointed Resident-Gen­ eral in Morocco in May 1912, he had the opportunity to try out this policy, which proved to be more effective. Lyautey sought to make the work of colonization penetrate Moroccan society subtly. Aware of the importance of such a program, Lyautey did not neglect any aspect of Moroccan society. The French impact affected even traditional Moroccan architecture, while preserv­ ing traditional aspects. See G. Wright, The Politics o f Design in French Colonial Urbanism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991). The most compre­ hensive study of Lyautey and his role in French colonialism remains D. Rivet, Lyautey et l ’institution du Protectorat français. 2 vols. (Paris: Harmattan, 1988). 66. Anonymous, Une Jeanne d A ’ rc africaine (Algiers: n.d). 67. Une Jeanne d A ’ rc ajricaine. 68. N. Slouschz, “La race de la Kahina,” in Revue Indigène, no. 44, Dec. 1909, pp. 573-83. 69. Ibid., p. 575. 70. Ibid., p. 576. 71. Ibid., p. 582. 72. The sénatus consulte of July 14, 1865, allowed the Jews of Algeria to acquire French citizenship, but only individually and upon request. Very few Jews were tempted, only one out of 1000. Crémieux, a minister of justice, a Jew himself, made the naturalization a legal requirement by the decree of 1871. The decree caused strong protest among various French political groups, including the democrats. See Julien, Histoire de l A ’ lgérie contemporaine, pp. 467-69. 73. N. Slouschz, “La race de la Kahina,” in Revue Indigène, p. 582. 74. Ibid., p. 582. 75. Julien, Histoire de l A ’ frique du Nord (Paris: Payot, 1951 and 1952; First volume revised by Ch. Courtois, second by R. Le Tourneau). English transla­ tion by John Petrie, History o f North Africa (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970), p. 12. 76. Ibid., p. 21. 77. The state operates mainly but not exclusively by oppression whereas the ideological apparatus of the state (including the school, the family, and

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the press) uses mainly but not exclusively ideology. L. Althusser, “Les appareils idéologiques de l’état,” in Positions (Paris: Editions Sociales, 1976), pp. 6 7 125. 78. For the relationship between history and myth, see Dumézil, “Mythe et histoire,” in Histoire et divérsité des cultures', and C. Lévi-Strauss, “Histoire et Dialectique,” in La pensée sauvage (Paris: Plon, 1962), English translation The Savage M ind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966). 79. D. Cazès, Essai sur l ’histoire des Israélites de Tunisie (Paris: Librairie Armand Durlacher, 1888). 80. Ibid., p. 45, n. 1. Cazès cites the poem in French. English translation is by the author. 81. It goes without saying that the same poem taken out o f this context may be interpreted in completely different ways. For instance, the Kahina can be seen as a Jewish chief unjust to her own population. See the interpretation o f J. Véhel, La Hara conte (Paris: Ivrit, 1929), pp. 72-74. 82. D. Cazés, Essai, pp. 7-8. 83. A. Chouraqui, L’Alliance Israélite Universelle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965). 84. D. Cazès, Essai, p. 7. 85. Z. Szajkowski, “The Schools of the Alliance Israélite Universelle,” in Historia Judaica, vol. XXII (New York: 1960), pp. 3-22. 86. For the history of modem Israel, see S. Flapan, The Birth o f Israel: Myths and Realities (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987). 87. H. Hirschberg, A History o f the Jem in North Africa (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974). 88. H. Hirschberg, “Ha-Kâhina ha-berberit,” Tarbitz, vol. XXVII, 1957, pp. 370-83. I would like to thank Ronen Raz for translating this article from Hebrew for me. 89. A. Chouraqui, Les J u if d A ’ frique du Nord (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1952). English translation by Michael Bernet, Between East and West: A History o f the Jews o f North Africa (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968). The same account of the Kahina is reprinted in Chouraqui’s Histoire des Juifi en Afrique du Nord (Paris: Hachette, 1985). 90. A. Chouraqui, Les Juifi d A ’ frique du Nord, p. 47. 91. Ibn 'Idhârî, El-Bayan: Histoire de l A ’ frique et de l ’Espagne, French trans­ lation by E. Fagnan (Algiers: Imprimerie Orientale, 1910), p. 25. 92. Chouraqui, Between East and West, p. 36. 93. Ibid., p. 37. 94. “Les derniers combats du peuple juif avant l’époque moderne remontent donc non pas à la lutte contre Rome, au 1er siècle de notre ère, en Palestine, comme on l’affirme souvent, mais bien au Vile siècle, contre les Arabes, sur la terre d’Afrique.” The passage has been removed from the English translation. ’ frique du Nord, p. 50. See the original text in Chouraqui, Les Juifi d A

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95. See, for instance, D. Soen, “Oriental Ethnic Groups and Their Place in the Social Stratification of Israel,” Sociologus, vol. 26, 1976, pp. 51-63; S. Smooha, Israel- Pluralism and Conflict (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University o f California Press, 1978), especially chapter 7, “Oriental-Ashkenazi Inequal­ ity,” pp. 151-82; E. Ben-Rafael and S. Sharot, Ethnicity, Religion and Class in Israeli Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), especially chapter 14, “Cleavages among the Jews,” pp. 219-31. 96. Though the situation has changed significantly, the issue is still the same. See G. Butt, Behind the Star (London: Constable, 1990). 97. The Kahina always has her place in any Jewish encyclopedia, and in any Jewish study of North Africa. See, for example, D. Coreos, “Kahina,” in Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 10, p. 685; M. Simon, “Le Judaisme berbère dans l’Afrique ancienne,” in Recherches d ’histoire Judéo-Chrétienne (Paris: Mouton, 1962), pp. 30-87. More recent is P. Sebag, Histoire des Juifs de Tunisie (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1991), pp. 42—44. 98. Two studies may seem, however, to contradict our assumption: P. Lucas and J.-C.-L. Vatin, L’Algérie de Anthropologies (Paris: Maspero, 1975); and F. Guilhaume, Les mythesfondateurs de l A ’ lgérie française (Paris: Harmattan, 1992). The first is more a history of ideas, more particularly a history of French anthropology. The second, though tending to analyze the French colonial mythology, contents itself with examining its use by politicians, and does not look at its invention by scholars. Only Ch.-R. Ageron devotes a very short article to the Kabyle myth: “Du mythe kabyle aux politiques berbères.” in Le mal de voir (Paris: Cahiers Jussieu 2/Union Générale d’Editions, 1976), pp. 331-48. 99. The Histoire des Berbères of Ibn Khaldûn, as translated by De Slane, is quite different from the Arabic text, not only because o f the colonial context, but also because of the very act of translation itself. Also see my forthcoming article, “Translation and the Colonial Imaginary: Ibn Khaldûn and the For­ mation o f French Knowledge of North Africa.” MS.

Chapter 3

From History to Fiction

Fiction allows historiography to equal memory. — Paul Ricoeur T he episode o f the Kahina, as we have seen, was truly at the heart o f the French historiography o f N orth Africa. It was o f great im portance because it represented a specific period when N o rth Africa was torn between the O ccident and the O rient, or more precisely when N orth Africa was still W estern, already Arab, and struggling at the same tim e to realize a national unity. This is why the story was easily m anipulated and the am biguity o f the main character, the Kahina, greatly facilitated its ideological use. T he historians I have dealt w ith in chapter 2 were creators o f French colonial mythology. They were not only scholars, b u t also ideologues who were very conscious o f their role in the colo­ nial enterprise. T heir writings, a form o f academic discourse, addressed in general to other scholars and politicians, have had an indirect yet considerable effect on their society. The politicians contributed to this diffusion by vulgarizing the historians’ thesis in their speeches. Fur­ thermore, imaginative writers propagated and perpetuated the same thesis in their w ork.1 The episode o f the Kahina was indeed a source o f inspiration for many writers in the colonial and the postcolonial periods. It is the literary ma­ terial about the Kahina which I intend to explore in this chapter.2 Need­ less to say, my aim is not to explore the literal content o f this material, but to see how the legend was drawn from the historians’ accounts and to examine how it was adopted and transformed by each writer. As in

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chapter 2, the aim is to decipher the meaning o f the legend in each his torical situation. Between H istory and Fiction A Jewish Heroine In the considerable amount o f literary material written by the French about the Kahina, we have, especially in the early phase, a kind o f writing difficult to classify. It differs, in form as well as in content, from both history and fiction. The accounts are not history because they are literarized, so to speak, even though they are presented with historical references. The authors, in spite o f their concern for historicity, allow themselves to create and invent, here and there, some significant details. This “literality,” how­ ever, does not give these writings the status o f literature. Their historicity, as well as their claim to represent a “reality” inscribed in the past, make them seem pretty much like history. This issue has long been debated.3 Nonetheless, this kind o f writing is intended to vulgarize history, to make it enjoyable and accessible to a larger public. This is the case o f the narrative written by J. Véhel, “La Belle Kahena,”4 which is included in a large collection o f essays by different writers de­ voted to Tunisia. The account is very much like a tale, but it is presented by the editor as “an authentic history o f the Kahina,”3 and by the author as an undisputed history (“an incontestable history”).6 The author claims to have used written as well as oral sources to write his short history o f the Kahina. To stress the historicity o f his tale, he gives a precise date and place o f her birth, 50/650 near Bizerta in Tunisia. He also gives her full name. She is Deya or Damya bent Nifak Cohen. H er father was a gover­ nor o f a province. From the outset, the author presents the Kahina as an Israelite, not as a Berber but as descended from immigrant Jews. The Jews were the first inhabitants (occupants) o f Tunisia: We know that the Israelites were the oldest inhabitants o f Tunisia where so many races have succeeded them. It was therefore a Jew­ ish country before it became pagan, Christian, and Arab.7 N ot only is the author claiming the use o f historical and oral sources to affirm the veracity o f his account, bu t he also argues against a simulacrum o f ideas, or that o f his own fabrication, giving his account a polemical dimension which emphasizes his claim to represent “reality.”

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For instance, he argues against some imaginative authors who maintain that the Kahina was a virgin shepherd. In Véhels opinion, the Kahina was the widow o f the King o f Aurès by whom she had two sons. Both o f them were militarily trained. T he Kahina was strikingly beautiful, highly intelligent, and very brave. She was obeyed and much admired by her people. W hen the Arabs attempted to conquer N orth Africa, the Kahina orga­ nized stiff resistance against them. T he Arabs, however, were creating ter­ ror and committing atrocities all over the country, killing and enslaving the population. At that time N orth Africa was already devastated by the Arabs. “Kociela ben Berham” (Kusayla) had died and the defense o f N orth Africa was left to a woman, a Jew. All the Berber tribes were allied with her. T he author gives a description o f her: She was superb, the Kahina, in her gray armor, covered with a red burnous, riding a black Arab horse, having at [her] side a small hatchet and her sword with silver seal.8 Furthermore, the Kahina carried a flag with the name o f Jehovah on it. She attacked “Hassane ben Nomane” (Hassân b. al-N u'm ân). The conflict lasted six years. Hassane was eventually defeated. He finally ran away from Tunisia and took refuge in Tripolitania. Hassane spent five years preparing to take revenge for the humiliation inflicted upon him by a woman. There is no m ention o f the adoption, or the supposed perfidy, o f “Khaled” (Khâlid). However, some sycophants misled the Kahina by making her believe that many Berbers were on the enemy’s side. As a result, the Kahina wrongly punished them. There is a lament, Véhel says, which tells about the sufferings o f the victims. Véhel is referring, o f course, to the poem collected by Cazès, and discussed above. The Kahina’s acts created anger and discord among the population. It was then that Hassane returned to attack her. The second clash between Hassane and the Kahina took place, accord­ ing to Véhel (who quotes “Cheik Ettijani,” that is, Tîjânî), at Thysdrus (El-Djem). H er fight was astonishingly heroic. She was wounded but not killed by an Arab sword. Having ordered her sons to join the enemy, she disappeared discreetly into a tunnel. Her weaponry was found, but not her body. The sea may have taken her. Even though Véhel uses the poem collected by Cazès, his version is significantly different from it. Cazès uses the poem to deny the Jewishness o f the Kahina in order to prove the injustice endured by the Jews in N orth Africa, even in the pre-Islamic period. Véhel, by contrast, takes the same

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poem to prove that the Kahina was a Jew who was unjust to her own people, but by mistake. However, Véhels account mainly perpetuates Slouschzs myth. Accord­ ing to Slouschz the Jews were among the first inhabitants o f N orth Africa. Slouschz was tentatively constructing the myth o f a Jewish N orth Africa. Véhel goes further, to maintain emphatically that N orth Africa was a Jew­ ish land, inhabited by a Jewish population coming from the East before any other group. The change in the legend reflects changes in the goal. In Slouschzs case, the goal was to justify the special status granted to the Jews. Véhels account serves to achieve the goals o f both Slouschz and Cazès. By making N orth Africa a Jewish land, he justifies the status o f the Jews and at the same time legitimates their prosperity. This is not all. As in Slouschzs account, the Kahina is presented in Véhels account as a national hero o f the Jews. Her deeds are worthy o f a hero. In her first clash with Hassane, what is at stake is the conquest o f N orth Africa and the Kahina successfully prevents Hassane from taking over N orth Africa. In the second clash, the object o f the batde is rather personal. Hassane is presented as intending to avenge himself against this woman who has previously defeated him. For both armies, the battle is bloody. At the end, Hassane fails in his efforts to capture the Kahina alive.9 The Prophetess O ne o f the works which are between history and fiction is Les Cava­ liers d A ’ llah. ,0 Jerome and Jean Tharaud are its authors. This book is like a novel, or more precisely, an epic. It narrates the history o f the Arab conquests in a heroic way. T he first story is that o f the Prophet, his birth and the establishment o f Islam. The authors then tell the story o f the Arab conquest, presenting it as being a natural continua­ tion o f the pillage resulting from the war against the rebels in the time o f Abû Bakr. The authors devote a whole chapter to the episode o f the Kahina. N othing in this narrative is different from the Arab accounts, especially from Ibn Khaldûn, except that the authors assert categori­ cally that the Kahina professed Judaism. The Kahina merely represents an obstacle to the Arab conquests in N orth Africa. This episode is situated, however, in the larger program o f the authors. W ithout stress­ ing the opposition between Berbers and Arabs, which was then taken for granted, the authors m aintain implicitly that the Arabs could con­ quer the Berbers only when they became part o f them. The history o f

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the Arabs in N orth Africa was that o f successive wars and rebellions against the Arabs who despised those who were not from their “race.” N orth Africa was pacified and Arabized only when the Arabs had long lived am ong the Berbers, understood them , and gained their sympathy. Such is the case o f Ibrâhîm b. al-Aghlab in Kairouan [Qayrawân] and the Idrissids in Morocco. This novel may be seen as a criticism o f French colonialism in that the French colonial system is very similar to that o f the Arabs. It is based on repression and exclusion. This policy does not pay off. It did not work during the Arab conquest, so for centuries N orth Africa was the scene o f revolts, which had religious coloring on the surface, but in reality were all directed against the unjust policy o f the Arabs. Unlike m ost o f their contem poraries, the T harauds11 were “anti­ colonialists,” meaning that they were critical o f the colonial system, but did not reject it entirely because they believed in the mission civilisatrice o f France. For them, colonialism should be a means o f progress and libera­ tion for other people, not a means o f exploitation.12

French Fiction about the Kahina in the Colonial Period A Woman in Love The legend o f the Kahina, far from being seen as a useless tale, was soon adopted by writers, not necessarily to reproduce the same historical accounts in an aesthetic way, but to articulate, consolidate, and promote a given ideology. As for historiography, colonialism gave birth to a N orth African Orientalism, better known, in the case o f Algeria, as the school o f Algiers. Literature also had its own school, that o f the the Algérianistes. Louis Bertrand, a fervent defender o f Roman North Africa, was the founder o f this school.13 The Algérianistes’14 agenda was very similar to that o f the historians: To justify our “conquests” and establish ourselves as the legitimate heirs of a very old tenure coming from our Latin predecessors. This is why, under the sheen of an imported Islam, he [Louis Bertrand] found again with a pious fervor many historical facts that go beyond the “obscure centuries” of the Middle Ages and the Turkish occupation. These facts restore to us our position as “successors” who are more civil, and therefore more legitimate, than the “conquerors.”13

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O ne o f the earliest novels about the K ahina was w ritten by M agaliB oisnard,16 herself a m em ber o f the Algérianistes and w inner o f the G rand Prix Littéraire d ’Algérie for her fiction in 1935. In this novel, the K ahina is a passionate lover. She is o f rare beauty, sharp intelli­ gence, and great am bition, b u t once in love she devotes herself whole­ heartedly to the person she loves. T h e novel begins w ith the narration o f the second m ilitary expedition o f O qb a ('U q b a). B oth “D in ar” (D înâr) and “Koceila” (Kusayla) are prisoners o f the Arab general. T he reader is inform ed, however, about the earliest operation led by O qba, his dismissal by the C aliph and his hum iliation by D inar, through a flashback. T he author actually reproduces the same accounts we have already discussed in treating the Arabic historiography. From tim e to tim e, especially at the end o f a day, O qba asks his chronicler to read w hat he has w ritten. T he Kahina is in touch with Koceila, and plots his liberation. As in the historical accounts, O qba dismisses most o f his army at Tehouda. It is then that the Kahina’s army, composed o f Berbers, Greeks, and Romans, attacks and kills the Arab general. At that time the Kahina is thirty years old, already queen o f Jrâwa and a m other o f three sons. H er passionate love for Koceila makes her aban­ don not only her sons but also her kingdom. Though motivated only by her passion for Koceila, she has a political dimension to her life. Perhaps her political concern comes only out o f her love for Koceila who is in­ deed the king o f the Berbers. H e is earnestly concerned w ith the fate o f N orth Africa. T he Kahina, because she loves him, shares his preoccupa­ tion. T he Berbers in this novel are very much the Berbers o f the French historians. Though they are the early inhabitants o f N orth Africa, they have never constituted a nation. They are related to the Europeans, but they lack the Europeans’ logic because they have not evolved through the ages. O ne can easily see in this novel both the influence o f Gautier and the general belief about what were called primitive societies, characterized by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl as pre-logical.17 Let us see how the author puts it in one o f the Kahina’s monologues: Neither yoke nor durable discipline is on these fierce fices whose spirit is willingly illogical, easily disturbed. Thus, this race, whose longevity should astonish the following ages, was in fact only pass­ ing feelings and inconstancy except for its inclination for per­ petual struggles and the quarrels between parties.18

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Precisely because o f the mentality o f the Berbers, the unity o f N orth Africa, realized by the alliance o f Koceila and the Kahina, is potentially in jeopardy. T he Kahinas passion makes her strong but also weak. By loving Koceila, she shows her strength. But by loving “Khaled” (Khalîd), an Arab in­ former who was caught near the Aurès, the Kahina shows her weakness. T he Kahina already knows through her informers about Hassans (Hassâns) intention to attack her. In this novel, the Kahina meets Khaled before her first clash w ith Hassan. But soon Seline, born o f the Kahinas first mar­ riage to a tyrant, helps him. H e even colludes w ith Khaled in his escape. Seline will never forgive his m other for her assassination o f his father. H e is a son, but also, in fact, a fierce enemy o f the Kahina. She is aware o f this. As in the Arabic historiography, the Kahina moves from Aurès to Baghya. To prevent Hassan from taking refuge there, she burns the city, and orders the destruction o f Thangas and Lamboesis. She then attacks Hassan and defeats him, capturing many prisoners. Khaled is am ong them. Unlike what is generally reported by the Arab historians, the Kahina does not free them, bu t orders their execution according to the Berber custom. She cannot however resist the young and handsome Khaled, so she saves him by adopting him. She loves him passionately, hence causing the anger and the subsequent desertion o f many Berbers. Seline himself leaves in his own turn to join Hassan. O ne w ould assume that the Kahinas passion for Koceila is fruitful be­ cause it makes the national unity o f the Berbers possible, whereas her love for Khaled facilitates the disintegration o f this unity. In other words, love— that is, a physical and spiritual union— is revealed to be positive when it is between the Kahina, a woman o f Jewish and pagan heritage, but w ithout a belief in a divinity, and Koceila, a Christian who has converted to Islam, but who remains truly Berber. A coalition between the Berbers gives birth to national unity despite the diversity o f cults and the racial deficiency. The Kahina represents N orth Africa. By contrast, the union with Khaled, an Arab Muslim, is revealed to be negative. Magali-Boisnard not only opposes Arabs and Berbers, but she goes further by making the reconcili­ ation between them impossible. In doing so, she reproduces G autiers theory about the population o f N orth Africa. T he division o f the Berbers causes their defeat, but their strength was created by their coalition w ith the Byzantines. As in G autiers account, one would assume that in modern times, only a coalition between the Berbers and the French would make both unity and prosperity possible in N orth Africa.

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The Eternal Kahina Gautier s influence on his generation o f historians and writers is consid­ erable, b ut not total. Some other writers are, rather, influenced by the anti-colonialist ideology adopted by some republicans, anarchists, and so­ cialists.19 This is the case o f G. Grandjean. His novel, La Kahena, par Vor, par le fir, par le sang,3* deals with Algeria, past and present. T he narrator is a French lieutenant, Saint-Rémy, who has the mission to check that a Berber chief by the name o f Si Saleh is still loyal to the French, because rum or has it that he is preparing a rebellion against them. Saint-Rémy is captured and kept prisoner among the Berbers o f the Aurès by a woman called the Kahina. This Kahina is exactly the same as the one who fought the Arabs in 647. Under the influence o f a nargila (hookah), Saint-Rémy has a vision o f the Kahina telling him about the episode o f the Berber resistance against the Arabs. She leads the struggle under a red and blue flag after the death o f Koceila in an attem pt by the Berbers to free him near Biskra. W hen “Haçane” (Hassan) returns to the Maghreb, the Kahina defeats him. H e runs away leaving ten thousand o f his companions prisoners. T he author adopts the version o f the destruction o f the Maghrib. T he Berbers, however, cannot understand the policy that “to save a country one must sometimes destroy it.”21 As a result, a massive desertion takes place. T he Kahina’s love for Khaled (Khâlid) makes things worse, because he betrays her. W hen Haçane returns, only a few people are willing to fight. T he Kahina fights heroically, and is wounded in the battle. Sud­ denly, as she is weakened, another woman emerges from a rock nearby. This woman protects the Kahina with her body in such a way that the Kahina is able to disappear mysteriously into the rock, whence the woman emerged. T he unknow n woman falls dead. Believing that she is the Kahina, Haçane cuts off her head and sends it to Abd al-Malik, the Sul­ tan o f Baghdad.22 T he Kahina, in this text, is not the symbol o f the motherland taken by the Arabs; she is l'Amour de la Liberté.3* She has always been alive in Algeria. She fights the Turks in 1681 and she is the one who defeats the French lieutenant, Saint-Rémy. Asked who she is, she answers: I am the one who incarnates the heroic resistance o f this people whose resignation is stoic, whose revolts are unsuspected. I am the O ne where the untamable love o f freedom has passed.24 T hen, having revealed her nam e— the Kahina— she concludes:

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Yes, like her and by her, I descend from Tabet, the Wise and Victor Tifnar to whom they were obedient, the mountaineers of Labiod, the Saharan of the fawn-colored planes, the Targuis of the unknown desert! The people of the Rif, they who could not con­ vince either the Bou-Kati or the legions of Rome.25 This novel promotes an anti-colonialist ideology. The author denounces colonialism not as a public but as a private enterprise created by politi­ cians and businessmen for their own interest: The people who oppress you are like you— they are not free. A half o f them fights the other half in the name of freedom. And for this fight, the two halves gave up freedom. Some business­ men and some politicians as vain as they are presumptuous speak insolently in the name o f nations. Soldiers obey, and soldiers kill.26 She continues: None of them can say that he acts in the name of the peoples. The peoples are not torturers. Those who govern them are the servants of those who exploit them. Both seek only to enrich them­ selves. They want nothing but to “gain” in this life. They accom­ modate themselves to war as well as to peace. Everything is good for them. Everything is to their advantage.27 The author also denounces the passivity o f the intellectuals: Their intellectuals, their writers, their writings have abandoned the cause of gods. The Maghreb is under a yoke, the Atlas moun­ tains are conquered.28 The author not only draws a parallel between the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa and the French conquest, but also introduces the episode o f the Banû Hilâl. In this episode, the Arabs came not as conquerors, but as settlers. Diyâb, the hero o f the Hilalis,29 saved Djizya, N orth Africa itself, from a Jew.30 Diyâb and Djizya fell in love with each other. In like fashion, during the French colonial experience, Saint-Rémy falls in love with a Berber girl, by the name o f Blidinah. Blidinah is none other than the daughter o f Djizya. In other words, she is N orth Africa itself. W hile he is in captivity, absorbed by his love for Blidinah, the French

,

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launch an attack against the Aurès. As in the episode o f the Arab con­ quest, the Aurès is burnt. T he lieutenant has two choices: To betray an oath, the oath made to France— to serve— or the oath of honor—to be quiet.31 He chooses neither one. H e takes Blidinah and runs away. In so doing, his message to the French is this: N orth Africa must be taken by love only, in a peaceful and personal way. T he author has been describing the Berber flag as red and blue. O ne would assume that it is only by a white flag, the symbol o f peace, that N orth Africa can be taken, and that the French will add it to the Berber flag, making it three colors, that is, French. In this novel, the author in fact creates a counter-mythology. Unlike both the historians o f the school o f Algiers and the imaginative writers o f the Algérianistes, for whom the Berbers are obedient, unable to rule, and always under foreign dom ination, Grandjean maintains that N orth Africa has always been revolutionary. In this novel, N orth Africa, symbolized by the Kahina, leads successive revolutions— against the Arabs, against the Turks, and against the French. The Arabs were accepted and integrated only when they came peacefully. The influence o f socialism in this novel is patent. At the beginning o f the twentieth century, protest against colonialism did not disappear, but its tone changed noticeably. Socialism was opposed to the colonial enter­ prise in two ways. It regarded it, as Paul Louis first expressed it, as a form o f bourgeois dom ination, which would definitively lead to its collapse. Secondly, it was seen as a fait accompli, but still denounced as a system o f repression. It was rebuked for its dom ination o f other peoples, instead o f being a means o f their liberation.32 Grandjean is rather close to the second tendency. He does not de­ nounce colonialism, but he is clearly in favor o f peaceful cohabitation between the French and the indigenous population, on the model o f the Banû Hilâl, who were completely integrated into the population. A Warrior Woman Anti-colonialist writers were not common in France. In most cases, the colonial enterprise was supported fervently. By the 1930s it had come to be seen as a national issue, a kind o f thermometer by which to gauge ones patriotism.33 However, not all the French N orth African literature, and not all the literary writings about the Kahina, aimed to give credit to the colonial enterprise. Some o f the historians, such as Cazès and Slouschz,

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intended to champion the cause o f a minority in the colonial society— the Jews. This tradition still continues. Berthe Benichou-Abouker’s tragedy, La Kahena, reine berbère,* written in 1933, is in Slouschz’s tradition. The Kahina, whose real name is Julie, is an extraordinarily beautiful adolescent who attracts a Roman chief by the name o f Sekerdid. Sekerdid is an ally o f Koceila, the Berber king, whom he assisted in defeating O kba ('U qba). Koceila has already promised the Kahina’s hand to Sekerdid. They both go to see Tabet for this purpose. Tabet is the son o f Infak who participated with Koceila in his resistance against the Arabs and is killed during the first batde against Okba. The Kahina strongly rejects Sekerdid. In the meantime, her hither dies mysteriously. One understands that Sekerdid is the instigator o f the assassination. Sekerdid also harasses and brutalizes women. W hen the Kahina is informed o f this, she decides to put an end to his cruelty. She deceitfully accepts his hand in marriage, and once alone with him suddenly stabs him. Sekerdid is the figure o f the foreigner, more particularly the Roman: Glory to the Kahina who killed the foreigner May the Holy Prophetess reign forever!35 After the victory over the Arabs, Koceila and the Kahina move to Kairouan. There the Kahina marries a Greek and has a child whom she names Nefous. Soon, the Arabs attack again, and both her husband and Koceila are killed at Mems. The Kahina is twenty-three years old. W hen she returns to the Aurès, her people want her to marry again, so she finally agrees to marry a Berber with whom she has another son, Temsit. Three years later, the second husband dies. W hen Hassan comes to N orth Africa, the Kahina defeats him near Meskiana, and captures a young and noble Arab by the name o f Khalid. The Kahina is then recognized as queen not only o f the Jrâwa, but also o f all Ifiîqiya. Khalid is adopted, as described by the Arab historians, and is declared a brother o f the Kahina’s sons. Soon, Khalid and the Kahina fall passionately in love. Nevertheless, Khalid keeps Hassan informed about the Kahinas activities, through an informer disguised as a beggar who visits from time to time. W hile Hassan is planning his attack, Khalid escapes from the Kahina’s mountains. As in the account o f Gautier, the Kahina’s reign is unjust and brutal. W hen the Arabs attack the Aurès for the second time, the Kahina is abandoned by most o f the Berbers. Notwithstanding the great influence o f Gautier on this play, the ideo­ logical difference is significant. Benichou is very concerned about the Jew­ ish question in N orth Africa. The Kahina in this novel is a Jew. Her

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mother, Rachel, and her nurse, Sarah, are Jews. The Kahina reigns over a multiconfessional population— Christians, Jews, and even idolaters. Benichou does not intend only to make the Jews o f N orth Africa dis­ tinct from the rest o f the population, she places them both in the same Judeo-Christian heritage with a secular dimension which is opposed to Islam. In her speech to the population, the Kahina says: You, you are under my flag Jews, Christians, Pagan Numidians All reunited like a herd Under the staff o f one shepherd We have resisted for a long time T he Muslim conquest.36 N ot only does she put Christians and Jews on the same side and oppose them to the Muslims, she also tries to maintain that Jews are equal to Christians when it comes to moral qualities. After the victory over the Muslims, the Roman chief says: They have depicted like cowards All those who descended from your race, Princess, But I have seen that the Jews are as brave, They have as much value and nobility As a noble Roman or a superb Frank.37 Benichous novel deals with another issiie different from that o f Slouschz. Slouschz, as we have already seen, was concerned with the justification o f the special status given to the Jews in N orth Africa. In the 1930s this does not seem to have been an issue. If the Jews were finally recognized as different from the rest o f the population— Arabs and Berbers alike— they were not however considered as morally equal to the Europeans. Benichous novel is directed precisely against this anti-Semitic attitude. Her main goal is to refute it: All the Christians put in doubt The honor, the virtue, and the value O f Israel through the ages Overwhelmed with sorrow and pain Weakened by somber rages Whenever a call is made for Their nobility and their courage

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They are seen coming, fraternal But who can ever pay homage To the oppressed people o f Israel!38 The Kahina o f Benichou is therefore a mythical ancestor o f the N orth African Jews, as she is in Slouschz’s account. The ancestors good deeds make her descendants as morally good as the French themselves. Like the French who refer to the Romans and claim to be their heirs, the Jews also have a glorious past to which they refer. They have been in N orth Africa since the beginning o f time and played an active role against the Arab invasion. This past makes them morally and historically equal to the French. A Warrior Mother In a novel by Rosette and Jean Bataille, the Kahina is a Jewish queen o f the Berbers, who lives in Baghia and reigns over a multiconfessional popu­ lation: Jews, Christians, and pagans.39 She is a mother o f two sons; one, Djokheran, is a teenager, a valorous warrior, the other, Babar, is still a child, but already shows a promising propensity for chivalry. During her first battle against the Arabs, the Kahina captures many prisoners. She frees all o f them except Khalid, a noble and handsome young man. In this novel Khalid is not a lover o f the Kahina, though he intensely desires her beauty, and tries repeatedly to seduce her. He is not however only attracted to her physically; he intends, once he possesses her, to use her to the advantage o f the Arab army. The Kahina, however, is not duped. She is a prophetess able to scrutinize the intentions, as well as the feelings, o f people. This novel is not only the Kahina’s love story, but also her son’s. He is in love with a young Christian woman, Zamar, whose father is a jeweler. Their love is particularly difficult. Zamar s father is also a Christian, and he cannot approve the union o f his daughter with a Jew. The authors describe throughout the entire novel the daily life o f the Berbers. Dihya (the Kahina) weaves matting, like any other woman in the Aurès. From time to time, she visits baths full o f Roman and Greek statues and decorations. Her son goes hunting with Bologguin, whom he will later kill in a duel because o f their rivalry over Zamar. As for Babar, he is initiated into the martial arts by Khalid. Khalid enjoys the hospitality o f the Berbers in spite o f his bad faith. He benefits from all the advantages, except for that o f attending the Berber chief’s meetings. But as soon as he has the opportunity to be­

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tray the Berbers, he does n ot hesitate. T h e K ahina is inform ed about his treason. H er inform er gives her a letter that Khalid w rote to Hassan. Aware o f his intention to flee, the Kahina asks him to leave u nder her own protection. T he Kahina knows about Hassans preparation to attack her. She then orders the devastation o f the Maghrib. But as in G autiers account, this ruin is not total. T he Arabs too are responsible, for Hassan orders his men to burn the country. In any event, the upheaval provokes the anger o f the Berbers, who see in the Kahina their enemy: There is no doubt about the insanity o f Dihya. After having gov­ erned us during the happy years, how can she now want our dis­ tress and our ruin? Is it not better to welcome the Arabs who are coming to us as brothers?40 Hassans army, this time, is more numerous, and well equipped. But what makes Hassan more determined to defeat the Kahina is the order o f the Caliph who makes Hassan choose between his head or hers (Sa tête ou ¡a tienne).41 Hassan is also helped by the circumstances. Most o f the Berbers, including the Kahinas sons, leave and join the Arabs. T he Kahina’s deter­ mination to fight is, however, unshakable. She skillfully organizes her faithful tribes. T he authors describe her army and give us an explanation o f the enormous idol that Mâlikî mentions in his Riyâd: Makcen is leading the fighters with lances, and Fayir and his sol­ diers are surrounding the enormous statue of Gurzil, the black bull God still with coagulated blood that its worshipers poured on it during sacrifices. While heading to the battle, they shout: “Gurzil! Gurzil! The Djeraoua proclaim: “Adonia.”42 T he battle is fierce and bloody. T he Berbers are defeated despite their bravery. Unlike the story in the historical accounts, the Kahina does not flee. She stands in the middle o f the battle, fighting heroically and search­ ing for Hassan. As soon as she sees him, she is fatally wounded by a lance. T he novel propagates, in a subtle way, most o f the myths we have discussed in the chapter regarding the French historians. T he Arabs are described, as in G autiers account, as destructive, as the enemies o f West­ ern achievements. The Arabs destroyed Carthage. They are characterized as robbers (pillards)41 and locusts (sauterelles).44 They are also hypocritical and ungrateful. Khalid shows love to the Kahina, but feels hatred and hostility. He is not touched by the Kahinas humanitarian gesture toward

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his companions or by her generosity when she offers him a luxurious lifestyle. Furthermore, though a foreigner, he could have had her heart if he was sincere, because the Kahina is secretly and sincerely attracted to him. The Romans, by contrast, are civilized builders. There is indeed an extensive description o f their baths, their temples, and their cities. The Berbers are, rather, the “noble savages.” They are peaceful, but ready to defend themselves against invasions. Their good nature can, however, ex­ tend to their enemies: they are kind to the Romans, to the Greeks, and even to the Arabs, as evidenced by the fact that the Kahina frees the Arab prisoners and adopts one o f them.

The Cheikha of the Aurès Marcelle Magdinier is another author who wrote a novel about the Kahina.45 H er novel narrates the whole life o f the Kahina, beginning be­ fore her birth. The story opens with her father Tabet, a sheikh o f the Djrawa (Jrâwa) tribe and an ally o f the strongest “cheikh” o f the Berbers, Kosseila (Kusayla), a prisoner o f the Arabs. Tabet is a Jew, whereas Kosseila is a Christian. But the solidarity o f the Djrawa with him is based on his high moral qualities, as well as on his willingness to defend N orth Africa, which is threatened by the Arab invasion. T he opening o f the novel is marked by a popular folktale theme. Tabet is passionately waiting for a baby boy from his beloved Birzil, so that he can assure the continuity o f his lineage. But things happen against his wishes. He has a baby girl. N othing is more shameful for a Berber chief than to be unable to have a son. His disappointment is such that he considers remarrying. But he fears that the responsibility will be his. T he unwanted child’s name is Dihia. W hile growing up, she learns how to be a good housekeeper. Oddly, however, she is noticeably inclined to war games. From time to time, she hears voices announcing predictions o f the future. She has a close friend, Zenon, a Greek, who will later be her lover, and with whom she spends most o f her time. She is initiated into the history o f the Berbers by a wise man by the name o f Sel. O ne can easily see that “Sel” is a derivative o f “Gsell” with the first and last letters suppressed. All the information about pre-Islamic N orth Africa is actually taken from Gsell, according to Magdinier.46 N orth Africa, in this novel, is shown to be diverse in its inhabitants. People speak different languages: dialectes berbères, patois puniques, grec et latin des Raums.*7 Kosseila, the most powerful chief, is portrayed, as in G autiers account, as a Romanized Berber:

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Beauty, intelligence, and courage describe this grand Mauretanian lord, made Latin by his baptism and his education. The Berber suppleness joined with the Byzantine subtlety.48 He is a good ally o f the Byzantines: Cordial relations . . . Kosseila entertained n o t only with Constantinople, but also with the Greek-Latin bourgeoisie o f Numidia and Byzantium.49 Moreover, the author reproduces exactly the same duality between the sedentary Beranes, Kosseila’s tribe, and the nomadic Botr, Tabet’s tribe. They have, however, one thing in common: an unquestionable hostility toward the invaders. Their alliance is old. Enfak, Tabet s father, is killed in the earliest clash between the Berbers and the Arabs, whereas Kosseila is taken prisoner by Oqba. D ihia is no longer a child when rum ors reach the Aurès about O qba’s intention to attack N orth Africa. She courageously galvanizes the popu­ lation and puts into practice her plan to defend the country and free its strongest chief, Kosseila. She traps O qba in Tahouda and kills him along w ith all his com panions. Tabet and Z enon perish during this battle. From Zenon, D ihia will have a child, M esraim. Seeing her cour­ age, Kosseila recognizes her as heir o f M aghdis, the ancestor o f the Djrawa. Though she is recognized as a “cheikha” o f the Aurès, she cannot rule. It is against the Zenata custom. Dihia, the Kahina, has to get married. She then consents to marry Amri, an ugly and foolish but very rich man. He is soon revealed to be a dictator, exhausting the population through heavy taxation. To spare them his dictatorship, she assassinates him, though she has a son with him, Slimane. Slimane will never forgive her. He lives in the hope o f avenging his father. The Kahina is conscious o f his feelings and intentions. Slimane serves as an informer for Hassan, who prepares to launch an expedition against the Aurès. Despite Slimanes advice to Hassan, asking him not to venture at that moment into the Aurès, Hassan does not pay attention and attacks the Kahina. As a result, he is defeated, and forty o f his companions are taken prisoner, including his nephew Khalid. The rule among the Berbers is that prisoners must be executed. But the Kahina is touched, not by Khalids bravery, as is generally maintained, but by his unusual beauty and tender age. Eager to save him, the Kahina thinks o f adoption according to the Berber custom.

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By saving Khalid from execution the Kahina violated a sacred Berber law. This provokes the anger o f the Berbers. H er policy does not help appease their anger. She is not ruling the country fairly. She is concerned only with the well-being o f her own clan. Thus, the duality between Beranes and Botr is reinforced by the Kahina’s policy, or better yet her lack o f policy. D uring a year o f drought, this tension reaches its climax. The Kahina despoils other clans to provide for her own. This policy has disastrous consequences for her resistance. It alienates most o f the clans. Thus, when Hassan attacks, the Kahina is dangerously weakened by the dissension created within her following. Seeing that she is losing the batde, she asks her sons to join the enemy so that the clan will survive, as in G autiers account. Despite her starding courage, the fierce resistance o f the Kahina comes to an end. Hassan does not succeed in the mission assigned to him by the Caliph. He cannot bring the head o f the Kahina to the Caliph, because when he cuts it on the edge o f a well, the head falls into the well. The author is largely inspired by Gautier, and reproduces Gautier’s theo­ ries on the N orth African population. Like Gautier, Magdinier opposes on the one hand the nomadic population, which is supposed to be the Kahina’s group, to the sedentary population. O ne can see in this novel that this duality is the cause o f the defeat o f the Berbers. The author also gives voice to Gautier’s theory about the inability o f the Berbers to found a nation because they think only in terms o f the clan. The idea o f a nation is alien to them. During the year o f drought, the Kahina provides only for her own clan and mistreats the rest o f the population. Moreover, her order to her sons to join the enemy reflects the same logic, her desire to save the clan. This is exactly the explanation given by Gautier for the Kahina’s attitude. The colonial mythology does not necessarily belong to the colonial pe­ riod, just as the colonial mentality does not belong only to the colonial era. The colonial mythology, as well as the colonial mentality, precedes and even transcends the colonial fact. Much o f the colonial mythology is still alive nowadays. Today, for instance, it is extremely difficult to find a copy o f Marcelle Magdinier’s novel. It cannot be purchased in bookstores, and it is not even found in the largest libraries o f Paris. O ne can only find it in the archives o f colonial libraries in N orth Africa (such as the Bibliothèque Générale de Rabat). But the colonial mythology it articulated can be found in a more recent book, which appropriates it and propagates in the post-colonial context all its colonial myths. This novel, by José Casino, is in effect a reproduction o f Marcelle Magdinier’s.50 O ne finds the same story, the same

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names o f actors, the same events, and even a passage copied verbatim.51 The work is a revival o f colonial mythology; it assumes and continues the mythology found in M agdiniers book. Unless one is a historian interested in the legend o f the Kahina, one may not read M agdiniers work. But Casino’s novel is recent, at the disposal o f the post-colonial reader. It per­ forms the same function as M agdiniers— perpetuating the colonial my­ thology. The Amazon of the Aurès By the 1950s there was already a French N orth African literary tradi­ tion, with its own means o f expression, references, and literary canon.52 At that time, fiction writing was not only drawn from and inspired by the accounts o f the Orientalist historians in general, but by the tradition o f the Kahina in particular. O ne could talk about a split between historians and fiction writers. Gradually, many fiction writers were liberated from the constraints o f the historical tradition, imagining more and drawing less from the historians. But the beginning was somehow unsound. Some writers were liberated from the historical heritage only to adhere too closely to the new literary heritage. This is the case, for instance, in Germaine Beauguite’s novel, La Kahena, reine des Aurès,53 published in 1959. The author draws heavily on M agdiniers novel, La Kahena. As in M agdiniers novel, the Kahina is an unwanted child. There are the same characters, w ith the same names, except that Dihia is called Damia. There is also the same wise and knowledgeable man, the equivalent o f Sel, but he is nameless. He has the same function, to teach the Kahina the history o f N orth Africa. Furthermore, the collective actors are the same: there is the Roman, a conqueror but a builder o f civilization, and the Arab, a destroyer. There is also the opposition between the Arabs and the Berbers. W hile the first are destroyers, the second are primitive and lack­ ing discipline. Among the Berbers themselves, the author sets in opposi­ tion, as in M agdiniers novel, the nom ad and the sedentary populations. Though an unwanted child, the Kahina makes herself man-like through strong will. She is trained in the martial arts. She has a friend, Zenon, with whom she will fall in love later and have a child. Koceila’s story, however, is different. He is a Jew, but he converts to Christianity to please the Arabs, and then to Islam to gain their confi­ dence. It goes w ithout saying that the author is opposing Islam to Juda­ ism. The Arabs seem tolerant o f Christianity but less tolerant, if not hostile, to Judaism. In any case, the Kahina secretly plots with Koceila to attack the Arabs. Helped by Tabeta and Zenon, she attacks Kairouan. But this

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attack is doomed to complete failure. Koceilas plan is revealed, and he is taken prisoner. This failure makes the Kahina think about the Berber army. She immediately creates a whole division o f women warriors, the Ama­ zons, wholeheartedly devoted to her. The Kahina resumes the attack when O qba heads to Thehouda with a small number o f his companions. They all perish except £1 Mohadjer, who becomes a prisoner and a hostage, as Koceila was. Since he is a brother in misfortune, Koceila spares him. £1 Mohadjer will soon escape and join the Arabs. In the throes o f the batde, the Kahina loses her hither and her lover Zenon, just as in Magdinier’s novel. Like Magdinier, Beauguite maintains that Berber custom does not allow women to govern, so the Kahina is obliged to marry. H er husband is the same rich and stupid Amri, and the son is the same Slimane. Amri rules the Berbers tyrannically and treats the Kahina herself poorly. He often leaves her and goes to Menaa, the Berber city o f prostitutes. Worst o f all, he trades with the Arabs and is even inclined to surrender the country to them. Desperate, the Kahina, in a m om ent o f intense anger, kills him, cuts off his head, and shows it to the Berbers. From that moment on, the Berbers vow fealty to her. As in Magdinier s novel, her son vows to avenge his father. He is behind all the Kahina’s misfortunes. He converts to Islam and serves as a spy for Zoheir and later for Hassan. Hassan is appointed general o f the Arab army and is defeated by the Kahina. Khalid, who is his nephew, is taken prisoner. His handsomeness makes the Kahina violate the sacred custom o f the Berbers. The only episode diverging from Magdinier is the Kahina’s love affair with Khalid. They love each other. But Slimane soon intervenes to put an end to their passion. W hile talking to Khalid, he mocks him for having an affair with an old woman who moreover hates the Arabs and fights against Islam. Little by little, Khalid is detached from the Kahina and finds himself attracted to Haiza, the most beautiful Berber girl in the Kahinas army o f Amazons. They gradually fall in love with each other, helped by the very mischievous Slimane who is at the same time actively organizing a propa­ ganda campaign in favor o f the Arabs. The Kahina soon finds out about Khalid’s love for Haiza. Instead o f a terrible punishment, she decides, on second thoughts, to release them and let them go to Kairouan. Haiza, however, is a real Amazon. Though she loves Khalid, she is devoted to the Kahina. From Kairouan, she serves as a spy, informing the Kahina about the plans o f the Arabs. As the Kahina knows that the Arabs are coming, she sets N orth Africa ablaze. T he Berbers leave her en masse, shouting Vivent les Arabes!™ W hen Hassan attacks her, she is already waging war against her own people.

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O nly a handful o f Amazons stay with her and even her son Mesraim leaves. Finally, she is alone. Haiza, who has already escaped from Kairouan, eventually joins her. Hassan, with Khalid and some officers, attacks the castle. Khalid unknowingly kills Haiza, believing she is in Kairouan. The Kahina is in a state o f extreme exhaustion when she meets Hassan. T h at is why he manages to kill her. The novel, however, does not end here. The Kahina dwells in heaven. A pious African man by the name o f Saint Augustine55 welcomes her warmly. Joan o f Arc also comes to meet with her. Saint Augustine praises them for their love o f independence, and informs the Kahina that Since your death, Arabs and Berbers are not far away from joining as one nation with the “Nouvelle France.”56 T he heavy influence o f Magdiniers novel on Beauguites makes the latter seem like a case o f plagiarism. It uses the same characters and the same scenes and promotes the same myths— the myth o f the ethnic diver­ sity o f N orth Africa, the myth o f Roman N orth Africa, and the myth o f the Arab destroyer, the enemy o f Western civilization. This certainly is not what the author intends to promote, as is clearly revealed in Saint Agustines statement that N orth Africa is about to form a nation o f Arabs, Berbers, and French. T he novel was written when the Algerian war o f liberation was at its peak. The author intended to argue that the cohabitation among these three different ethnic groups was possible, or even actually realized. At that time (1955), because o f the seriousness o f the Algerian resistance, France finally agreed to grant the Algerians French citizenship and pro­ posed a program o f assimilation. This action was certainly seen by the author as a sign o f progress in the Algerian situation. But, for the Algeri­ ans, it came too late. In April 1956, even the Algerian defender o f the Frenchification o f Algeria, Ferhat Abbas, joined the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) which would not accept anything less than the full independence o f Algeria. T he author, drawing from Magdinier, who wrote in a completely different context, did not succeed in promoting what she intended.

French Fiction about the Kahina in the Post-Colonial Period The Kahina: A Powder Keg After a long and bloody war (1954-62), Algeria was finally declared independent. Thus, French rule in N orth Africa came to an end. N orth

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Africa is still regarded by the French as an ex-colony, an im portant part o f what is called Francophonie, that is, the French-speaking regions. As a result o f the French colonial experience, N orth Africa remains dependent on France economically, as well as culturally. And precisely because N orth Africa is an ex-colony, it remains a region o f French preoccupation. The Algerian war o f independence, the rise o f fundamentalism, and the prob­ lem o f emigration are among the primary concerns o f French policy. This complex set o f concerns is clearly reflected in post-colonial French writing. To limit ourselves to the topic at hand, it can be shown that the legend o f the Kahina at this time reflects exactly this new kind o f interaction. T hat is, the legend o f the Kahina lends itself to these problems. Pierre Cardinal s novel La Kahcna is a good example.” T he Kahina in this story is not a woman, but a fortress: it is not a story o f resistance against the Arabs, but o f resistance against the French. In this novel, an old man called Ilakherter moves from Tunisia to the desert o f Algeria to lead the Algerian resistance. In the desen he meets his supporters, and is given a guide who will help him reach the heanland o f the resistance. The guide, an Algerian himself, is revealed en route to be a traitor, and he tries to kill the old man, whose rhetorical skill saves him from im m inent death. T he guide disappears when they reach the hean­ land o f the resistance. He presumably informs the French about the rebel activities. T he old man gives orders to the rebels to kill everybody and then moves to the Kahina, the fortress. T he rebels have already engaged in military activities against the French, as well as against the environment. Like the earlier Kahina, they destroy the vegetation. The place is completely desened, except for a French woman, a nurse from the Red Cross, and her three French Arab children. The children have been baptized and have French names: Marie, O dette, and Pierre. Dissension arises among the Algerians left behind by the old man. Some o f them do not accept orders from a government in exile. Ilakherter’s son, Boujad, is appointed as head o f the faction. He encounters disapproval from some o f the top rebels. O ne o f them, Amrouche, decides to arrest Boujad and sends a message to Boujads father asking him to leave Algeria and threatening to denounce him to the French if he refuses to go. Apparently, neither Boujad nor his father are arrested. Boujad is de­ feated and killed in a battle against the French. His father directs a battle from the fortress and the French burn it down using oil and napalm. D uring the night everybody is killed, and everything is destroyed. In the morning, the only survivors are the French Arab children who play indif­ ferently with the corpses.

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In this novel, as we can see, the Kahina is a place, or rather a symbol o f a land, a symbol o f Algeria. It is seen as a fortress, and one recalls the Aurès where the first resistance against the French was launched. T he au­ thor criticizes both sides, the French because they use the most brutal weaponry to suppress the insurrection and the Algerians because they use the crudest m ethod in their resistance, a m ethod that does not spare any­ one. This is summarized in the old man’s order to his men: TUER.58 T he insurrection has been directed by people abroad. O ne would assume that the reference here is to Tunis where the leaders o f the FLN formed, on September 18, 1958, a provisional government (Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne). T he conflict described in the novel between the two factions is reminiscent o f the intense rivalry, or even war, between the FLN and the M N A (M ouvement National Algérien) during the war o f liberation.59 Nonetheless, the clash is bloody. N o one survives, except the three chil­ dren. T he Algerians are all killed in this war and the French vanish. O nly the new Frenchified generation escapes. But they are deprived o f their French mother, or literally o f France, who has disappeared. N othing is said o f her fate. O ne may well ask: How can children thrive in such a threaten­ ing situation w ithout their mother? Though the author intends to criticize this whole episode in the French Algerian experience, he does not criticize French colonialism; rather, in some ways he regrets its passing. As in the early w riting o f a Mercier or a Gautier, where the Algerian is regarded as a child who needs to be helped, the thesis prom oted by Cardinal is exactly the same. T he Frenchified Algerians are like children60 and need their m other to survive. In 1975, barely a decade after Algerian independence, the colonial mentality had not completely disappeared in France. T he myth o f the mission civilisatrice o f France was still maintained by some authors, as in the case o f Pierre Cardinal. An Adoptive Mother H uguette Chevallard-Fillipi is the author o f a play about the Kahina.61 T he events o f the play take place between two dawns. T he Kahina is a woman warrior who defends her country against Ahçan (Hassan). Ahçan has returned and is determ ined to avenge the hum iliating defeat inflicted upon him by the Kahina. T he author here stresses the Kahina as a m other figure. She has her biological son, Koceila, who is thirty years old. A nd she adopted a two-year-old Arab child, H anoub, who is now an adolescent. H er third child is a teenage girl, M onique, a Christian adopted when she

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was sixteen years old. Yet, this is not all; as in Magdinier, the Kahina also adopts a fox. H anoub goes through an existential crisis. Though strongly attached to the Kahina, as well as to the whole population o f the Berbers, something inside him, maybe his “Arabness,” prevents him from identifying himself as a Berber. M onique, by contrast, is completely in harmony with herself, as well as with her society. She is allowed, thanks to the Kahina, to retain her own religion, which is different from that o f the Berbers who worship Boal.62 H anoub resolves his crisis. He comes to know who he is and what his past is. He knows that he is an Arab. And yet, he remains in the depths o f his soul identified with the Berbers. Furthermore, H anoub succeeds in resolving not only his identity crisis, but also his spiritual crisis at the same time. Instead o f choosing the voluptuous world o f the Arabs, he chooses the spiritual and somehow mystical world o f Christians: I am attracted to another country That disdains the flesh, and the voluptuous pleasure altogether The pearls, the perfumes, the houris, and the ark.63 As Ahçan approaches, the Kahina orders the destruction o f the land, so that he will be discouraged and give up. This action is approved by all except Tariq, a Berber chief. Tariq is the opposite o f Hanoub. Tariq is a Berber chief who joined the Arabs in the beginning, when Okba took over Carthage and took Koceila prisoner. His attitude is pro-Arab. He wants the Berbers to surrender, but his motivation is merely his own material gain. Conversely, Hanoub, though an Arab by blood, is a Berber in his heart and soul. W hen he discovers his origins, his feelings towards the Berbers do not change. Furthermore, he converts, not out o f selfish material interest, but because he adheres to what he believes to be the “truth.” H anoub is o f Arab descent, but his name is anything but Arab. Tariq, by contrast, is a Berber, but his name is purely Arab. The opposition is not only between Hanoub, a true Christian though an Arab, and Tariq, a Muslim traitor though a Berber, but within each o f them as well. Hanoub is both an Arab and a Berber, or better yet, his Arab blood is opposed within him to his cultural “Berberness.” O r to borrow Lévi-Strauss’s language, he is an Arab by nature and a Berber by culture. In the end, it is culture which triumphs. It is because he is adopted, kindly treated, and more importantly, rigorously initiated into Christianity by

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Monique that he chooses as he does. Islam for him is remote; his knowl­ edge o f it is only second hand, through Tariq. Like Hanoub, Tariq also opposes w ithin him Islam and non-Islam, that is, Christianity and eventu­ ally Judaism. But since he is a negative character, he actually serves as a contrast to H anoub. We can certainly relate this novel to the post-colonial situation in France. Islam and immigration are two phenomena o f the post-colonial period. In France these two issues are inseparable, since Islam is not, or is not yet, a part o f the Western heritage. T he integration o f the N orth Africans into French society is very difficult for two reasons: because they have been colonized by France, and equality with the former colonizer is extremely difficult; and because they are Muslims. T he rise o f fundamentalism in the Islamic world has made things even worse, because it makes Islam appear to be incompatible with modern and democratic societies. In this play, the author maintains that it is not origin that determines the ideology o f a person, but rather his environment and his education. A N orth African raised and educated in France would be more likely to be French, just as H anoub has grown up among the Berbers and is faith­ ful to them. Fealty to a nation has more to do with education than with blood or origin. In this play, Tariq is a Berber, but not loyal to the Berber cause. An Impossible Love In a play written by Simone Guiramand in 1977, the Kahina is wounded at the beginning o f the first act, but she has just won the battle against the Arabs.64 Two energetic men are in her service: Sekerdid al-Roumi, an ex­ commander o f Kossyla (Kusayla), who moved to Aurès after the death o f his chief and initiated the young Kahina into martial arts. T he second man is Temzit, a cruel warrior and cousin o f the Kahina. He loves her passionately, but somehow helplessly. T he Kahina does not appreciate his cruelty and does not respond to his proposal. Rejected, Temzit declares his intention to withdraw from the Kahinas army, depriving the Kahina o f a third o f her warriors. Khaled is among the prisoners taken in this battle. He is the son o f the “Caliph o f Egypt.” He accompanied his uncle who was killed in the battle. He has impressed the Kahina with his beauty and his courage, and she adopts him as her third son. T he Kahina feels more than admiration for Khaled. She falls in love with him as soon as she sees him. Even though she wants to keep it a secret, her behavior betrays her. Khaled himself is in love with her and knows what she feels for him.

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Their love is difficult from the beginning. T he Kahina is concerned about their age difference, for Khaled is not yet twenty years old. The Arabs’ preparations to attack the Aurès do not allow her to enjoy her new love. She is caught between her heart and her reason. She loves Khaled, but she has the heavy responsibility to defend the Berbers. As for Khaled, he waits for her impatiendy, but not passively. Khaled incessantly tries to seduce her. Finally, the Kahina confesses her love and lets herself fall into his arms, but suddenly Sekerdid interrupts them. Sekerdid announces that the Arabs are ready to attack. T he Kahina orders him to employ her strategy o f destroying the forests. He warns her that such a policy will destroy the livelihood o f most o f the Berbers, but in the end he obeys. This action quickly creates discord among the Berber chiefs. Given the gravity o f the situation, Khaled proposes that the Kahina come with him and leave the batde to her commander, Sekerdid. The Kahina categorically refuses to do this. Again, just when she is about to give herself to Khaled, Sekerdid interrupts them. This time, danger is at the door. Most o f the Berbers are surrounded. Temzit himself, who had tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Khaled, has joined the enemy. The Kahina is determined to fight. She asks Khaled to take her sons over to the enemy’s side, and leaves the scene. In this play, Khaled represents the Muslim Arab. He is not the enemy, but rather a facilitator— not only because he has caused the Kahina to experiment with love for the first and last time in her life, but also because in the end he helps her to save the Berbers and her sons. The Kahina defends liberty, and liberty has a special meaning in the Kahina’s opinion: Maybe this is liberty: to stay faithful to what is most profound in oneself, what tortures oneself, what one has not desired . . . and though one cannot reject it without suppressing oneself!6* The Kahina is fighting to preserve the very essence o f N orth Africa. This is not only Berber, but Arabo-Berber. Khaled is her lover as well as her son; he is an Arab, but he has been adopted as a Berber. He is both a Berber and an Arab, or simply put he is a N orth African. The Kahina’s opponent is Haçan, an Arab from the Orient. W hat the Kahina refuses is the total Arabization o f the Berbers, an Arabization which would change them, “suppress them,” and make them different. In contrast to most o f the novels we have discussed, the Kahina’s hatred is absent from this play. She does not hate the Arabs; she fears only their invasion. Khaled him ­ self is an Arab w hom she prefers over her own cousin, Temzit. T he

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Kahina’s religion—Judaism— is mentioned allusively only once, but she does not oppose religion, not even Islam. W hat the Kahina opposes is cruelty, the intolerance even o f those closest to her like Temzit. She likes Khaled’s kindness and sincerity. The theme o f betrayal is indeed absent from this play. If anyone is guilty o f betrayal, it is Temzit, who joins the enemy. Sekerdid is the great helper. He is a Roumi (Byzantine), thus a Chris­ tian. N ot only does he stand courageously with the Kahina to fight Haçan, but he also saves her twice from Khaled’s arms. Furthermore, it is Sekerdid who educated the Kahina. The Kahina defends not only a dual N orth Africa, but also a wider, more diversified N orth Africa. This situation reminds us very much o f Tunisia in the post-colonial period. Bourguibas policy was very pro-Western, pro-French. Just as Sekerdid educated the Kahina, France educated Bourguiba. As president o f inde­ pendent Tunisia, his ties with France were very close. He strongly believed that Tunisia, and all the newly independent states, would be dependent on the developed countries for some time before they could achieve their own autonomy. His attitude toward Arab nationalism was different. In fact, Bourguiba was frankly hostile to it. Arab nationalism, in his opinion, constituted a threat to Tunisia’s independence. Bourguiba, like the Kahina, was not against Arabs, nor was he against cooperation between the Arab states, but more than anything else he feared the hegemony o f Nasser, just as the Kahina feared the invasion o f Hassan. An Ordinary Person Roger Ikor is another author who wrote a novel about the Kahina.66 His case, however, stands out because he is the only Jew, and the only author not o f African descent, who devotes a novel to the Kahina. His novel is different from all those we have examined. Let us first summarize it briefly. A woman ruler is not an oddity among the Berbers, according to the author. W hat is unique about the Kahina is that she is both a ruler and a Kahina. Kahin is a hereditary Jewish function. The kahin intercedes be­ tween God and people, and with the help o f some neophytes called Levites, sees the need o f the House o f God. T hat is exacdy the function o f the Kahina’s father. In ancient times, Jews from the East immigrated to N orth Africa. Some o f them, such as the Kahina’s family, settled among the idolatrous Berbers o f the Aurès, the Djorawa. The Djorawa were influenced by the Jews and soon integrated Judaism into their lives.

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The Kahinas hither is a kahin, a modest man, neither powerful nor prestigious. He does not enjoy any more respect than a normal person. His function does not even protect him from the scorn o f children in the street. He is responsible for the ritual ceremonies, and that is all. He is the father o f thirteen children, eight o f whom have died during childhood. The author does not mention the remaining children again in the book. W hen he dies, Damia replaces him. She performs her function so well that she becomes known as “the Kahina” instead o f just “Kahina.” And when the ruler o f the Aurès dies (or rather, is killed by the Kahina because she is old and unable to govern), the Kahina is the only candidate able to replace her. She becomes the ruler and remains the Kahina. She takes control o f the situation with an iron hand. She is, from that time on, known as the queen o f the Aurès, instead o f the more common tide o f Ancienne. At that time the “Arbi”67 are already present. The Kahina meets one in the forest before she becomes ruler. He rapes her once and when he tries to rape her again, she kills him. From this encounter the Kahina has a son whom she names Amrid. She easily convinces people that the baby is the son o f an angel. The Kahina is very bored in her situation o f a ruler o f the Berbers. She marries, and she has another son, Amin, who is not the son o f her hus­ band, but o f Sadder, an old friend o f hers. She begins to travel, and visits other tribes, and talks w ith their chiefs. Unintentionally, she becomes very prestigious throughout the Berber tribes. T he K ahinas hatred for the Arbi is boundless and instinctive. They rem ind her o f the ugly, dark m an who raped her. She soon finds a reason for her hate. She asks her son A m rid and her friend Sadder to go and investigate the situation o f the Arbi in Kairouan, b u t their attitudes toward her change after their mission. T hey have seen how women live am ong the Arbi; they are veiled, and men take charge o f everything. From that m om ent on, the Kahina hates the Arbi “ratio­ nally”: She understood what has changed in both men: their spontaneous submission to the power of women was touched.68 She is now aware o f what is at stake in the battle against the Arabs; it is her own power as a woman. In the Aurès, there is no room both for her and the Arabs, no conciliation, no negotiation possible. The Arbi are against womens power.

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Hassan, evidently, comes to the Aurès where the Kahina is preparing her attack. She combines well-organized military force and an ingenious strategy. She makes Hassan believe that the Berbers are fleeing, and when he ventures into the mountains, he is trapped. Hassans army is soundly defeated, but astonishingly he escapes with the help o f some o f his offic­ ers. He thus shamefully runs away from a woman. In this battle no prisoners are taken. T he rule in the Aurès is to kill all prisoners except women and children. After her victory over Hassan, the Kahina attacks his governor in the nearby city o f Theresta. She destroys it, killing the inhabitants. Only women and children are spared; the Kahina keeps a beautiful teenage girl. By this time, the Kahina is no longer an attractive woman. Already the m other o f two, she wants to adopt this girl, because she has always wanted a daughter. Surprisingly, she discovers while interviewing the young person that he is in fact a boy named Khalid. The Kahina still likes him, and adopts him as her son. T he teenage boy apparently enjoys living in the Aurès. H e becomes a good friend o f Amin, the second son o f the Kahina. They get along well, too well actually. The Kahina herself is thrilled to see them spending most o f their time together. O ne day, however, she stumbles upon them in a corner, having sex. Earlier in her life, the Kahina would not have hesitated to order their execution according to Berber law. But this time, her reac­ tion is different. She brings Khalid to her house, and in order to test his virility, she asks him to sleep with her. This experience occurs during her menopause. From that moment, she is no longer the Kahina, but only a poor and weak woman, enjoying sex and eating pastry. The Arbi are back. The Kahina does not pay attention— she is com­ pletely absorbed by her “M audit,”69 a reference to Khalid, or more pre­ cisely a reference to his genitalia. N o one can save her anymore. Finally, when danger is close, she moves w ithout any preliminary preparation, with some faithful tribesmen, to confront the Arbi. Khalid, as well as Sadder and Amin, are with her. Sadder, who is in favor o f an alliance with the Arbi, stabs her and immediately accuses Khalid o f her attem pted as­ sassination. Amin explains sheepishly to the Arbi that their hostility was just a mistake, and promises better behavior. T he Djorawa integrate the new religion into their own; as they had done this in the past with Juda­ ism, it is not difficult: When people knew that the god Mahmoud was not a god, but a prophet, that is something in the genre o f the Kahina and that He, the Blessed Unnamed Saint would not change except that the

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Arbi would give him a name, then ail the tribe, like one man, were glad. . . .70 Ikor’s novel is radically different from all the other literary works we have examined. Ikor does not continue any narrative tradition. The Kahina is not a symbol o f Jewish heroism nor a mythical ancestor. This is because Ikor does not share the attitude o f those who follow Slouschz’s tradition. Whereas the followers o f Slouschz are o f N orth African origin, Ikor is a French Jew o f Lithuanian origin. Let us see how he deals with the Jewish question in the novel we have briefly summarized. In contrast to the novels and plays inspired by Slouschzs account, Ikor does not present the Kahina as really heroic. She is not a symbolic Jewish heroine. It is true that in the beginning, her deeds were grandiose, but to a great extent they were accidental. The Kahina gains the confidence o f the Berbers only because she visits them to avoid being bored, and not at all because o f diplomatic skills. She is motivated to fight the Arabs not because she is a nationalistic heroine, devoted to the defense o f her coun­ try, but only because her own power is at stake. In this novel, Ikor criticizes both religion and historical symbols. O ne thing that strikes the reader o f his novel is his constant scorn o f religions and beliefs. He mocks the stupidity o f people who are inclined to be­ lieve, or rather to extravagantly satisfy their need to believe. For instance, he sarcastically criticizes Moses for punishing the Jews who worshipped the Golden C alf in his absence, and sparing Aaron, the real culprit. Ikor also speaks in the same tone o f Mary, who made Joseph believe not only that she had a baby from God, but also that she was still a virgin. M ohammad is portrayed as a “gigolo” claiming to be a prophet. The same criticism is applied to the Kahina. Like Mary, she makes people believe her first son to be the son o f an angel. And like all prophets, she invents visions, and has people believe that she communicates personally with God. As for historical symbols, Ikor takes the specific example o f the Kahina and intentionally breaks with Slouschz’s tradition. The Kahina is presented as a normal hum an being who succeeds in the beginning by chance, and in the end loses through her own negligence. Ikor uses also another proce­ dure to “de-symbolize” the Kahina as a Jewish heroine. He describes through the book her most vulgar and intimate gestures (spitting, belching, and worse). W hat does Ikor intend to achieve by his acerbic criticism o f both religion and historical symbols? Ikor is very much involved in the struggle against anti-Semitism. In his opinion, only by abolishing religion as a way o f thinking in the modern world can anti-Semitism vanish for good and

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the Jews be completely integrated in their own societies. Historical sym­ bols, like that o f the Kahina, which makes a French Jew think about his past in N orth Africa, creating at the same time a gap between him and a non-Jewish French citizen, are a means o f exclusion, and play exactly the same role as religion.71 Ikor is not an anti-Zionist writer. His support for Israel is unquestionable, but he believes that the Jews must carry through their integration in their own societies, including Israel. This is just a step, a means to an end; his goal is not nationalistic, but rather humanistic. He aims to "abolish barriers” (religions, historical symbols, and so on), in order one day to unify humanity.72 A Great Woman The final novel to be considered, La Kahina, la magnifique, written by J. P. Kakon,73 is much more o f a historical novel. T he author intends to reveal the “true history o f the Kahina.”74 The story begins at the point at which Hassans expedition has come to an end. Khalid is now wandering the streets o f Cairo, denouncing elGhassani and the whole Arab army, and claiming that the woman whose head was shown to the Caliph o f Baghdad is not the real Kahina. H e is the only one who knows where the real Kahina is, and he intentionally misleads el-Ghassani to avenge himself. Evidently no one listens to Khalid. H e is a madman; he lives in the house o f an old woman who takes care o f him. Thus the author begins the story o f the Kahina. As in Magdinier’s and Beauguites novels, Tabet is a well respected chief o f the Djorawa, a longJudaized tribe. He has been waiting desperately for an heir, each o f his children having died immediately after birth. After being helped by some sorcerers, a Jew and a Negro, he finally fathers a baby girl who is asked to keep away from the chief’s castle. T he baby, who is none other than the future Kahina, is given to a humble family who live in a modest house, to be raised with their own child. The childhood o f the girl is marked by some extraordinary events, like the sudden appearance o f a black giant who declares to her hither that he will devote himself to her protection. D uring her childhood, as in most novels we have discussed, the Kahina behaves like a tomboy, inclined to play military games. O nce a teenager, the Kahina, already quite capable, plays a major role in rescuing the forty-year-old Koceila from Oqba’s hands near Meskina. After he is rescued, and proclaimed by the whole population as the natu­ ral chief o f the Berbers, their relationship is tense, complicated, and

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marked by rivalry. Each o f them sees in the other a threat to his or her own power. This rivalry prevents them from discovering their love for each other. Such strong personalities cannot live together. Koceila moves to Kairouan to chase the Arabs, whereas the Kahina returns to the Aurès, to rule her people. She is the undisputed queen, even though her father is still alive. The Kahina is also obliged to marry. The man she finally agrees to marry is well educated, but soon revealed to be mentally deranged. He suddenly disappears. Everybody thinks that he is dead, but actually he has only retreated. He is soon forgotten. W hen the Arabs return, the Kahina quickly organizes her army to be ready to help Koceila. This time the two lovers are open about their passion for each other, as time has lessened their pride. The battle, however, soon takes place in Memes. T he Arabs are defeated, but Koceila is fatally wounded. O n his deathbed, he designates the Kahina as his heir. T he Kahina skillfully takes charge o f her duties. H er first priority is to unify the Berbers. T he Arabs return under the command o f el-Ghassani, this time more numerous and armed to the teeth, but weakened by internal discords. Their army is divided between two leaders. El-Ghassani is more inclined to a peaceful conquest if such a thing is possible. His goal is to make N orth Africa Arab w ith few casualties and little damage. T he second leader is Medaoui, who is a commander o f informers; he is corrupt and inclined to a violent conquest. He is in favor o f a radical approach. The rivalry between the two men makes the situation unhealthy for the soldiers. Khalid himself is caught between them. W hile Khalid admires el-Ghassani, Medaoui wants Khalids support. Medaoui offers Khalid a captive Berber woman named Zina, so he can manipulate him through passion. At Miskiana, near a river, the two armies meet, but they do not wait until the next m orning as in the Arab chronicles. T he Kahina’s army rests during the day, and in the middle o f the night its members cross the river and massacre a num ber o f Arab soldiers, creating more terror than casual­ ties. Medaoui is assassinated during this surprise attack, at the request o f el-Ghassani. W hen the outcome o f the battle is clear, el-Ghassani himself runs away. T he Kahina returns to the Aurès victorious, but unhappy. She releases all the prisoners, except Khalid, whom she keeps for he is strikingly hand­ some. In this novel Khalid is not a nephew o f Hassan, nor is he a noble­ man. He is the adopted son o f a merchant in Cairo. T he Kahina’s love for him does not last long. She meets another man, from another tribe, a Jewish caravaneer by the name o f Gaboan. Their love endures, and thus

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Khalid is abandoned. D uring this time Khalid has never stopped loving Zina. Informed o f Khalid’s failure to capture the Kahinas heart, el-Ghassani now despises him. Noticing the hostile atmosphere, Zina runs away, not toward Aurès but toward Cairo, so that she will not be caught by elGhassani’s men. Nevertheless, she is captured by some caravaneers, and is sold to a man who is stupid but kind. She maintains her love for Khalid. She has a son and names him Khalid. T he theme o f the devastation o f N orth Africa is absent. As soon as elGhassani receives assistance from the Caliph, he moves on to besiege the fortress o f the Ledjem, also called Thysdrus. Seeing that the battle is par­ ticularly fierce, the Kahina orders the Berbers to join the Arabs. T he battle fiercely continues. For el-Ghassani, it is a personal matter since he wants revenge for the humiliation inflicted on him by the Kahina. To this end he seeks to capture her alive. As the battle reaches a conclusion, an un­ recognizable woman wearing the Kahinas helmet and a cuirass is found in the fortress. Everybody thinks it is the Kahina. W hen asked his opin­ ion, Khalid says it is. The Kahina however is not killed; she joins her Jewish lover, Gaboan, with whom she lives and travels across all o f N orth Africa as a trader. Khalid dies in Cairo, in the street next to that in which Zina lives. T he oppositions we have discussed in the early French historiography, and in some o f the novels, are all present: the opposition between the Berbers and Islam, between Christianity and Islam, between Islam and Judaism. Islam is not directly attacked. The author expresses two differ­ ent ideas about Islam in the post-colonial period. A distinction is made between two kinds o f Islam: the one is seen as tolerant, and therefore, acceptable both in Islamic countries and in the Western societies where Islam is a reality; the other is fundamentalist, and thus dangerous and unacceptable. This second kind o f Islam is believed to be the product o f a group that manipulates Islam and uses it in their struggle for power. The episode o f the Arab conquest expresses this particular Western view o f Islamic societies. Both El-Ghassani and Medaoui are pre-configurations o f the new Islamists. N ot all Islamists have a violent strategy: el-Ghassani, a man o f subtle methods, preaches a takeover to be achieved more by “demagoguery” and less by violence. Medaoui, by contrast, is in favor o f a radical method. He seeks to conquer by hook or by crook. Despite their differences, however, their goal is the same: to use Islam in order to attain power. T he Kahina is a Jewish figure, and as such she is a heroine o f the Jews. But at the same time she is more. Having galvanized a m ulti­

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confessional population against the Arabs—Jews, Christians, and pagans— w ithout presenting their resistance as religious, the Kahina is a champion o f tolerance, ready to defend it at any time. And though the Berbers join the Arabs in a moment o f desperation and weakness, the Kahina, who personifies tolerance, does not die. She is still everywhere in N orth Af­ rica. In chapter 2, the aim was to show how the historians found, through the legend o f the Kahina, a mythology to support and justify the colo­ nial enterprise. In the beginning, there was no consensus on colonialism. Indeed, it had been faced with a general public indifference, and fierce opposition from some politicians and ideologues. By the 1930s, when colonialism was widely accepted, a whole colonial mythology had already been elaborated and served as the ideological support o f the colonial en­ terprise. In this chapter, we have seen how fiction supported historiography in promulgating and perpetuating the colonial mythology. In the early phase, fiction was mainly an aesthetic reflection o f historiography; historians such as Gsell and Albertini, and especially Gautier, provided the imaginative writers with a ready-made mythology. It was especially in the circle o f the Algérianistes that this mythology was adopted and propagated through novels, plays, poetry, and literary essays. Magali-Boisnard was, however, another novelist who used the legend o f the Kahina to this end. In her novel, she stresses the opposition between the Arabs, who caused the dis­ integration o f the Maghrib, and the Berbers, who knew neither discipline nor logic, but were frequently changing. In spite o f their mercurial char­ acter, they were united by Kusayla; he was a personification o f the coop­ eration between Berbers and Byzantines. Rosette and Jean Bataille also express the same mythology in their novel about the Kahina. Like MagaliBoisnard, they express the dominant ideology which was intended to make Algeria French, by excluding the Arab and using the Berber as his oppo­ nent and as a helper o f the French. The Berber was considered to be in need o f help, but he in his turn was supposed to help France make Alge­ ria French. The legend, however, concerns different groups, and constantly inspires other texts. In the thirties, when anti-colonialism was vanishing, it even inspired a minuscule group o f anti-colonialists. An anti-colonialist ideol­ ogy is expressed through the legend. In Tharaud’s novel, the chapter about the Kahina is used as an example o f a policy o f repression that does not pay off. Though they killed the Kahina, the Arabs coùld not really con­ quer the country until they changed their policy and lived w ith the Berbers on an equal footing. Similarly, in Grandjeans novel the Kahina

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clearly represents the “love o f freedom” and the legend articulates a myth o f revolutionary N orth Africa. In contrast to the image o f an obedient Berber who has been ruled willy-nilly by different conquerors, N orth Af­ rica in Grandjeans novels has always been revolutionary— revolting against the Arabs, the Turks, and even the French. T he myth, expressed differ­ ently in Tharaud and Grandjean, aims to denounce the colonial system for its repression, and it also preaches cohabitation between the French and the indigenous populations through another myth, that o f the Banû Hilâl. T he legend o f the Kahina has the fundamental characteristic o f being able to be appropriated by any group. As in the historians’ case, where the legend served the Jewish minority’s desire to justify its status, especially in the early accounts o f Slouschz, one can still see the same tradition con­ tinuing in fiction. Slouschz serves as the founder o f the Jewish narrative tradition about the Kahina. Véhel propagates Slouschz’s myth o f a Jewish N orth Africa, a m yth which makes the N orth African Jews distinct from the rest o f the population to justify the integration o f the N orth African Jews into the European community. O ther writers such as BenichouAboulker and Beauguite also propagated this same m yth in the colonial period. They express the myth o f Jewish N orth Africa and also provide the N orth African Jews with a mythical ancestor to contribute to the making o f their own identity. This myth survived even in the post-colonial period. In Kakon’s novel, the Kahina is a Jew, symbol o f tolerance and liberty, in contrast to the bigotry o f the Arabs who use religion to attain power. Ikor, by contrast, perpetuates the myth o f the Jewish Kahina only to obliterate it. He uses the legend to criticize what in his opinion divides people rather than unifying them. Nowadays, a N orth African Jew, or a French Jew o f N orth African descent, relates himself to the Kahina73 even if he is Albert Memmi.76 T he functionality o f the legend was not limited to the colonial period. It is still used today to deal with issues related to both N orth Africa and France. Pierre Cardinal and Chevallard-Fillipi, among others, have used the same legend to express the post-colonial condition in a France marked by immigration and by the emergence o f fundamentalism. In Cardinal’s novel the Kahina is a symbol o f a place, Algeria, which is the arena o f the battle between the French and the Algerians, a time and a place where the Algerians do not take advantage o f the help o f the French. Instead, by waging a war against the French, the Algerian ends up alone in a situation where he badly needs help. In Chevallard-Fillipi, the legend o f the Kahina speaks to the issue o f immigration. T he Kahina is the symbol o f a land that has accepted many groups and adopted the children o f Arabs, Berbers,

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and Byzantines, regardless o f their religion or ethnicity. Their differences do not prevent them from living with each other in harmony, nor does it affect in any way their loyalty to the Kahina. In short, the legend o f the Kahina has not only survived, thanks to fiction, but has also enlivened the colonial mythology, while simultaneously helping to deal with other issues. Let us see now what Arabs and Berbers think.

Notes 1. An idea developed by Edward Said, in Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978). Let us give one example: the idea of the Arab kingdom de­ clared by Napoleon during his visit to Algeria in 1860, on September 17-19, was suggested to him by the French Muslim scholar Ismaël Urbain. On the other hand, the opposite idea of a Berber Algeria was first elaborated by Dumas, Fournel, Mercier, and others. For Ismaël Urbain and his influence, see Ch.-R. Ageron, “‘L’Algérie algérienne’ sous Napoléon III: Ismaël Urbain,” in "L’Algérie algérienne” de Napoléon III à de Gaulle (Paris: Sindbad, 1980). Also, A. Hannoum, “Colonialism and Knowledge in Algeria: The Archives of the Arab Bureau,” History and Anthropology, vol. 12, n. 2, 2001, pp. 1-37. 2. There are three plays which I was unable to find: Henri Choisnet’s La Kahena, reine de l'Aurès, published with other writings in 1896, entitled Varia. Touraine, Algérie, Feuilles mortes, suivies de la Kahena, reine de TAurèr, La Kahina, by Jean Hilaire, a general, a play in five acts published in 1918; and La Kahena by Emile Roudié, a play in four acts, presented at the theater of Algiers, and published in 1923. Jean Dejeux, to whom I owe a partial bibliog­ raphy of the literature related to the Kahina, gives a brief summary of the first one, and mentions the two others. See Jean Dejeux, “La Kahina: De l’histoire à la fiction littéraire. Mythes et epopée,” Studi Maghrebini, vol. XV, 1983, pp. 1-42. This article was published with some changes in Dejeux’s Femmes dAlgérie (Paris: Ed. La Boîte à documents, 1987). 3. K. Hamburger, The Logic o f Literature. Translated from German by M. J. Rose (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973). 4. Véhel, La Hara conte. 5. Ibid. Avertissement. 6. Ibid., p. 106. 7. Ibid., pp. 99-100. 8. Ibid., p. 102. 9. This same version is adopted by M. Paoliilo in “La Kahina,” in Contes et légendes de Tunisie (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1957), pp. 209-15. 10. Jerome and Jean Tharaud, Les cavaliers dAllah (Paris: Plon, 1935). 11. The word “anti-colonialist” at that time referred not only to those who opposed the whole system, and therefore sought its abolition, but also to

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those who criticized its excesses, and wanted to improve it for the benefit of both the colonizer and the colonized. See Ch.-R. Ageron, L’anticolonialisme en France de 1870 à 1914 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1973). 12. Elswhere, especially in La fete arabe, the authors openly criticize the French colonial system. They denounce the Italian, Spanish, and Maltese "in­ vasion” of French Algeria and condemn the exclusion o f the Arabs, and the destruction of their lifestyle. Like Gautier, however, they maintain that the indigenous population lacks logic, abstract reasoning, and the ability to gov­ ern itself. Jerome and Jean Tharaud, La fite arabe (Paris: Emile-Paul, 1912). 13. Louis Bertrand (1866-1941). His idea of Roman North Africa was common among historians like Gsell, Albertini, and Gautier. But Bertrand devoted all his work, mainly fiction, to this idea. He talks more precisely about Latinité, which refers to the Greco-Roman heritage. Knowing that other nations, possibly the Italians, could make the same claim, Bertrand supported his claim by emphasizing the French effort and sacrifice in conquering and colonizing Algeria. See his article, “Africa,” Revue des Deux Mondes, March 1, 1922, pp. 114-35. Among his most well known novels are Le sang des races (Paris: Ollendorff, 1899): and Le roman de la conquête (Paris: Fayard, 1930). For more details about Bertrands ideas, see Maurice Ricord, Louis Bertrand lA ’ fricain (Paris: Fayard, 1947). 14. The name was given by R. Arnauld, also known as Robert Randau, in his preface to an Algerian collection of eassys, De treize poètes algériens (Algiers: 1920). 15. J. Pomier, Chronique d A ’ lger 1910-1957 ou le temps des Algérianistes (Paris: La Pensée Universelle, 1972), pp. 11-12. 16. Magali-Boisnard, Le roman de la Kahena (Paris: Art Piazza, 1925). 17. L. Lévy-Bruhl, La mentalité primitive (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1922). 18. Magali-Boisnard, Le roman, pp. 39—40. 19. Girardet, L’idée coloniale en France, 1871—1962. 20. G. Grandjean, La Kahena, par l ’or, par le fer, par le sang (Paris: Ed. Monde Moderne, 1926). 21. Ibid., pp. 143-44. 22. In many of these pieces of literature, 'Abd al-Malik is the Sultan of Baghdad. It can hardly be otherwise for the French reader (and maybe even the author) familiar with the world of the Arabian Nights. 23. Ibid., p. 139. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 140. 26. Ibid., p. 229. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid., p. 230. 29. The Banû Hilâl, an Arab tribe; they emigrated from Arabia to Egypt during the first half of the second century A.H./eighth century A.D. In the

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fifth/eleventh century they were ordered to emigrate to Ifriqiya. There is a debate about their exodus from Egypt and its consequences. A tradition origi­ nating with Ibn Khaldûn made them responsible o f the second destruction of Ifriqiya; the first destruction is supposedly the one caused by the Kahina. The Banû Hilâl exodus was ordered by Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir (439 A.H./ 1047 A.D.), on the advice of his minister al-Yazuri, in order to punish the Zirid al-Mu'izz b. Bâdis for his recognition of the Abbasid Caliph and his rupture with the Fatimids. Ibn Khaldûn maintains that when the Banû Hilâl arrived in Ifriqiya, they were as numerous as a cloud of locusts. They invaded Ifriqiya, devastated Qayrawân, and broke the Zirids. Among the defenders of this version are E. Mercier, G. Marçais, E.-F. Gautier, and more recendy H. Idriss, author o f a famous thesis about the Zirids. The second version was developed by J. Poncet, according to whom Ifriqiya had experienced long before the arrival of the Banû Hilâl an economic and political crisis which disturbed its social structure. The Banû Hilâl were not as numerous as Ibn Khaldûn maintains, consisting only of some thousands of cavalry. Not only they were not the authors of the pillage attributed to them, but they served as agents of security, when anarchy and brigandage were general because o f the crisis. See H. Idriss, art. ttBanû Hilâl,” in EI2, pp. 385-87; and La Berbérie sous Us Zirides (Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1962), especially chapter 4, “Ca­ tastrophe,” in vol. I, pp. 205-47. For Poncet, see his “Le mythe de la ‘catas­ trophe’ hilalienne,” in AnnaUs ES.C , September-October 1967, pp. 1099-1120. 30. The legend of Jizya is very old; it already existed in Ibn Khaldûn’s time. The Banû Hilâl considered it, however, as a true story, and no one dared to contest it. As reported in the fourteenth century by Ibn Khaldûn, Jizya was a member of the Banû Hilâl, the wife o f the Sharif Shuler, an emir of Mecca, whom she left to join her relatives. The Banû Hilâl, in the time of Ibn Khaldûn, believed that Jizya married a Banû Hilâl chief, by the name o f Madi Ibn Musrib. See Ibn Khaldûn, Histoire des Berbères, trans­ lated by De Slane, vol. I, pp. 41—44. The legend, however, has many ver­ sions. Basset (1885) gives a similar version to that of Ibn Khaldûn, based on a tale of the Banû Hilâl. Jizya left her husband to join her tribe. The husband knew and joined her in the hope of delaying their departure, so he would be joined by his army. Jizya informed her tribe about his intention. The Banû Hilâl kept going, at the same time making the husband believe that they were settled in one place, by putting the same tree in front o f his tent every evening. Finally, after having crossed many countries, Jizya re­ vealed the secret to her husband, and asked him to go back and take care of the children. A. Bel translates a version that is different from this one. Shukr was a prince of Tunis. He heard of Jizya’s beauty through a Jewish merchant. As the Banû Hilâl, starved, were in search of a place to settle, they asked the prince for his authorization. He agreed to let them settle in exchange for Jizya, wife of Diyâb. The noble Banû Hilâl women asked Diyâb to consent. He did so on condition that he would be given a thousand

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young men of the Banû Hilâl, and another thousand young women. He then left. The Banû Hilâl, however, regretted his departure, and decided to join him. Prior to doing so, they informed Jizya, who wanted to join them. She succeeded in duping her husband, and caught up with the Banû Hilâl. As soon as the Sharif knew about Jizyas intention not to return to Tunis, he prepared to attack the Banû Hilâl. He actually defeated them, and took Jizya. But soon, Diyâb appeared and destroyed the Sharif s army. The Sharif perished of sorrow. Apparently, the novelist did not use these versions avail­ able in his time, but invented his own. R. Basset, “Un épisode d ’une chan­ son de geste arabe,” in Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine, 1885, pp. 136-48. See A. Bel, “La Djazya, chanson arabe,” in Journal Asiatique, March-April 1902, pp. 289-347, for a general introduction; September-October 1902, pp. 164-236, for the Arabie text, with notes; March-April 1903, pp. 331-66, for a French translation. 31. Grandjean, La Kahena, p. 263. 32. Girardet, L’idée coloniale. Also Ageron, L’anti-colonialisme en France. 33. Girardet, L'idée coloniale, pp. 111-14. 34. B. Benichou-Aboulker, La Kahena, reine berbère (Algiers: Soubiron, 1933). 35. Ibid., p. 52. 36. Ibid., p. 59. 37. Ibid., p. 62. 38. Ibid., p. 63. 39. Rosette et Jean Bataille, L’epopée berbère, El Kahéna (Brussels: Ed. de Belgique, 1935). 40. Ibid., p. 177. 41. Ibid., p. 180. 42. Ibid., p. 239. Makcen and Fayir are two characters, chiefs of tribes. Gurzil is a god, a bull, born of Ammon and a cow. In the sixth century, Gurzil was worshipped by the Africans o f Tripolitania. His images were made out o f pieces of wood and metal. See Gsell, Histoire ancienne, vol. VI, pp. 128-29, 138, 165. “Adonai” means “the Lord”; it is a name o f the Jewish divinity. It is clear that the author maintains that the Djrawa were Judaized, while other Berbers were idolatrous. 43. Bataille, L’epopée, p. 12. 44. Ibid., p. 141. 45. M. Magdinier, La Kahena (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1953). 46. Ibid., p. 5. 47. Ibid., p. 26. 48. Ibid., p. 27. 49. Ibid., pp. 27-28. 50. J. Casino, La princesse berbère (Montpellier: Dehan, 1984). 51. Ibid., p. 23; see the same passage in Magdinier’s La Kahena, p. 27.

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52. For this “school,” see P. Grenaud, “Une nouvelle école littéraire,” Les Nouvelles Littéraires, October 15, 1953. 53. G. Beauguite, La Kahena, reine des Aurès (Paris: Ed. Auteurs, 1959). 54. Ibid., p. 138. 55. Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.), one o f the most admired intellectual heroes of the French colonialists, such as Louis Bertrand who wrote exten­ sively about him, as well as of the North Africans, especially the Berbers nowadays. For details about Saint Augustine, his life, and the evolution of his thought, see Peter Brown, Augustine o f Hippo (Los Angeles: University o f California Press, 1969). 56. Beauguite, La Kahena, p. 155. 57. P. Cardinal, La Kahena (Paris: Julliard, 1975). 58. Ibid., p. 54. 59. In 1954 the leaders of the FLN opted for a radical stand toward both French colonialism and moderate Algerian nationalists. Furthermore, they decided to integrate all Algerian political parties into their organization, if necessary violently. Hence their conflict with the MNA, and the situation of “a war within a war,” to use one actor’s phrase. Mohammad Harbi, Le FLN, mirages et réalité (Paris: Ed. J.A., 1980), p. 143. 60. A common theme in colonial literature. For instance, Augustin Bernard, an influential ideologue of colonization, approvingly quotes Ernest Mercier: “O ur indigenous people need to be governed, they are old children incapable of be­ having by themselves. One should lead them firmly, not accept from them any prank; at the same time one should protect them, guide them paternally, help them and especially impose on them our superiority by our justice and our inflexible uprightness.” A. Bernard, “Ernest Mercier et la question indigène,” in L’A frique à travers ses fils (Paris: Librairie Orientale, 1944), p. 59. Even as recently as 1998, a novel called Kahena expresses a similar mythology. Behind her voice is the voice o f the author, a former French officer in the colonial army, Jean-Pierre Gaildraud. Gaildraud’s Kahina is a Kabyle woman educated in France. She has two sons, one who joins the French army and the other who joins the Algerian resistance. After independence, her two grandsons also go opposite ways: one of them joins the Algerian army, the other one joins the Islamists. However, in this novel the Kahina, also Joan of Arc, continues to watch over her grandsons. Jean-Pierre Gaildraud, Kahena (Paris: Tiresias, 1998). 61. H. Chevallard-Fillipi, La Kahena (La Gaude: Edition de l’auteur, 1979). 62. There are many divinities by the name o f Boal, which in the Punic language means “the Lord.” The most popular one in North Africa was Boal Hammon. He was imported from Phoenicia. Boal Hammon was represented by a head with huge rolled up horns. See Gsell, Histoire ancienne, vol. IV, pp. 277-301. Melqart is a Phoenician god. His name, in Punic, is a derivation of Melek qart, meaning “the King of the City.” His temple was located at Gadès, and he was much venerated by the Carthaginians. The Greeks identified Melqart with Heracles. See S. Gsell, Histoire ancienne, vols. I, IL

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63. Chevallaid-Fillipi, La Kahena, p. 48. 64. S. Guiramand, Kahena (Tunis: Ed. Maison Tunisienne, 1977). 65. Ibid., pp. 102-3. 66. R. Ikor, La Kahina (Paris: Encre, 1979). 67. A North African pronunciation of 'arabî (“an Arab”), used slightly ironically in this novel. 68. Ikor, La Kahina, p. 140. 69. Ibid., p. 191. 70. Ibid., p. 208. 71. See R. Ikor, Lettre ouverte aux Juifs (Paris: A. Michel, 1970). 72. R. Ikor writes: “Yes, my most profound aspiration is to see men reunite and fraternize. I dream only of breaking the frontiers that separate them, the artificial and even the natural ones.” Lettre ouverte aux Juifs, p. 16. 73. J. P. Kakon, La Kahena, la magnifique (Paris: Instant, 1990). 74. Ibid., p. 10. 75. For instance, A. Bensousan, talking about a classmate o f his who has a “Talmudic beard,” reminds us that he is a “descendant of the Kahéna, our great Berber queen defeated by the Islamic horde.” Abu N adir (Paris: Flammarion, 1978), p. 55. Also G. Memmi: “Being at least twelve years old, my mother remembers the queen, the Kahina. Converted Jews who became too frithful and these wounded her; others resisted and she was so proud of them.” Qui se souvient du café Rubens? (Paris: Ed. J. C. Lattès, 1984), p. 28. 76. “The first definitive reference to our presence here is found in the historian El-Milli who, in his Arab-Berber chronicles mentions, among the companions of the Kahina, the famous Jewish-Berber queen, a certain ElMammi.” A. Memmi, Le scorpion (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), p. 25. Memmi narrates the adventure of El-Milli in his other novel, Le désert. At the end of his adventure, El-Milli joins the Kahin, a male leader, whose religion the author does not mention. The Kahin leads the nomadic tribes, but he is defeated and his head is sent to Damascus. Nevertheless, in this novel, the Kahin, a male name, clearly reveals both the outstanding “manly” qualities of the Kahina and her Jewishness. Put simply, one can refer to the Kahina as a man, for she was one; one does not need to mention the Jewishness o f the Kahina, for she was a Jew. Albert Memmi, Le désert (Paris: Gallimard, 1977).

Chapter 4

Post-Colonial Memories

Indeed this affair I may note in passing had an extraordinary power of defying the shortness of memories and the length of time: it seemed to live, with a sort of uncanny vitality, in the minds of men, on the tips of their tongues. —Joseph Conrad By the third decade o f the tw entieth century, Arab nationalism had already taken shape, becoming the dom inant ideology in the M iddle East. N orth Africa, finally considered a part o f the Arab world after having being regarded for a long tim e as a “New A ndalusia,”1 was gradually affected by Arab nationalism . It was again an object o f con­ flict, tacit if not open, between the O rient and the O ccident (France). T he situation, in many ways, reminds us o f the tim e o f the Arab con­ quest, when N orth Africa was torn between the Byzantines and the Arabs. In m odern times, it was to be disputed between the Arabs and the French.2 T his time, however, the struggle first took place on the ideological level. T he French, as we have seen, established the legiti­ macy o f their conquest not only by force, bu t also by a historical claim provided by a mythology expressed in the historical w riting on the episode o f the Kahina. T he N orth African historians and ideologues directed their intellectual effort to destroying this mythology, so as to deprive the French o f their legitimacy. In so doing, N orth African his­ torians produced a counter-mythology. It is this counter-m ythology th at served as a support for the struggle for independence, and as a basis for national ideologies, during the post-colonial period.

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As the episode o f the Kahina was o f considerable importance for the French, it became the primary target for Arab historians. In this chapter, the aim is not only to explore Arab historiography, but also to examine narratives o f other groups such as the Berbers and women. To achieve these aims, this chapter examines both written accounts and oral data related to this legend. The Legend in Arab H istoriography o f the Colonial Period An Algerian Heroine In 1930, France celebrated with extraordinary trium ph and pomp the centenary o f French Algeria.3 The French colonial enterprise seemed de­ finitively established. Few doubted the durability o f French Algeria. How­ ever, signs o f its precariousness were present and discernible. The Algerian Salafi movement predicted it at the climax o f the strength o f French colo­ nialism. "After the peak,” Ibn Bâdis wrote during this time, “is the down­ fall.”4 O ther signs o f potential downfall— the most important ones— were visible in the emergence o f a historical consciousness, a feeling that Algeria constitutes part o f the Mashriq, is tied to it by history, language, and faith as well as race.3 The centenary coincided with the publication o f three works o f history, all o f them focused on the period o f the Arab conquest. The emergence o f a historical consciousness was mainly a result o f the contact between Algeria and the Mashriq, especially Egypt. The teachings o f M uhammad 'A bduh had a great impact on Algeria, first through Tuni­ sia and then by the visit o f M uhammad 'A bduh himself.6 Soon the Alge­ rians founded a Salafiya movement, an echo o f that o f Egypt. Tawfiq Madani7 and Mubárak Mili,8 the authors o f the books I will examine, were both im portant members o f the Salafiya movement. Madanî pub­ lished a monograph on Carthage in 1927.9 Three years later, he published a history o f Algeria.10 In M adam s account, both Kusayla and the Kahina are presented as Algerian heroes. N orth Africa had been under a foreign yoke. The Berbers, anxious for liberty and freedom, were incessantly fighting the invaders. Such was the case with the Berbers under the leadership o f Kusayla and the Kahina during the Arab conquest. But this time, the Berbers did not know the intentions o f the Arabs; they thought the Arabs were like other invaders, seeking only to exploit the Berbers’ land. This is why the Berbers fought them in the beginning. Kusayla led the first war o f resistance and established a Berber kingdom after the death o f 'U qba. He was an honorable king (m alik ja lit).n After

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his death, the Kahina, a Jew also known as Dihya b. Thâbit, assumed power. The Arabs in this account are also heroes. Their aim is to spread Islam and to liberate the Berbers horn the Byzantines (Rûm). The destruction o f Carthage by Hassân is not the result o f an instinct for destruction, but rather a military tactic to suppress the Byzantine and Christian influence in North Africa for good, to deprive the Byzantines of a reason to return, and finally to establish Qayrawân as the only capital. Hassâns strategy proved successful: the Byzantines attempted to take Carthage again, but when they realized that the city had been destroyed, they retreated. In the meantime, the Kahina conquered a large part o f N orth Africa and then attacked Hassân and defeated him. Madanî does not mention the cause o f the defeat, nor does he mention any supposed coalition be­ tween the Berbers and the Byzantines. Many prisoners were taken, among them Khâlid. Khâlid was a spy ( 'ayn) for Hassân.12 He kept Hassân informed about the Berbers. At this time, the Kahina destroyed villages and burnt crops. This roused the anger o f the Berbers, who were unwilling to support her and deserted her cause in large numbers. The Kahina, this time, avoided confronting Hassân. He followed her persistendy until she finally accepted confrontation. The clash was bitter and the Kahina was fatally wounded. Madanî does not mention any o f his sources, and until this point, his account is not significantly different from that o f classical historiography. It is only then that he provides us with a very interesting detail, which constitutes the keystone o f his narrative: [The Kahina] then met with Hassân, the general, and entrusted him with her two sons, asking them to [embrace] Islam and be in its service. She died, and thereafter the Berbers submitted to the conquerors.13 In M adanîs account, the Arabs and the Berbers are not two irreconcil­ able forces. The Berbers fought the Arabs not because they were Arabs, but because they were unknown invaders. They believed the Arabs were no different from the Romans. In M adanîs view, the fight against the Arabs was a continuation o f the fight against the Romans. In Madanî s account, the Berber view o f the Arabs undergoes a gradual transformation. Whereas at first the Berbers regarded the Arabs as foreign oppressors, they in time came to view them as just and generous libera­ tors, as the harbingers o f civilization:

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The Berbers realized that the new conquerors were completely different from the previous ones; they also realized that for the first time they were considered equals.14 O n the other hand, M adani contrasts Berbers and Romans. T he first were the early inhabitants o f N orth Africa, and the second were invaders, who came to exploit and enslave the population. This state o f affairs had lasted for centuries, during which N orth Africa had known the darkest obscurantism and the worst form o f injustice and repression. T he Arabs were the saviors. They destroyed, for the benefit o f the Berbers, all traces o f the oppressor. They also offered Islam, which provided the Berbers with equality and allowed them to achieve their ambitions. It was thanks to Islam that the Berbers were liberated from the tyranny o f the Romans and acceded at last to equality and dignity. O ne can see that M adani not only dismisses any presumed progress o f civilization un­ der the Romans, but also establishes another myth, that o f the civilizing mission o f Islam. M adani in effect replaces the m yth o f Roman N orth Africa with that o f Semitic N orth Africa. M adani links the Berbers to a Semitic origin, asserting that they were o f Canaanite origin. Arriving from the O rient, they settled for a long time in Egypt, where they were assimilated to Egyptian language and customs before moving on to N orth Africa. M adani thinks that it is possible that Egyptian peasants were among the Berbers who settled in N orth Africa. Furthermore, another people had been known in N orth Africa for more than three thousand years. They, too, m igrated from the East— the Phoenicians. T he Phoenicians were o f Semitic origin, and more particu­ larly descended from the Canaanites. Berbers and Phoenicians fused with each other, constituting a nation with a high civilization. T he Phoenician impact on N orth Africa was everlasting because o f its Semitic origins, and it is precisely this impact which made the Islamization and the Arabization o f N orth Africa easier. Madani creates a whole mythology, opposed to that o f the French, which would support the claim o f the Algerians and justify the Eastern influ­ ences on Algeria. His account is opposed, point by point, to that o f Gautier. In fact, Madani reverses G autiers account entirely. Roman N orth Africa, in this version, is a story o f decline, obscurantism, and decay. T he Ro­ mans, in G autiers account, brought civilization and prosperity, while in M adam’s account they brought a system o f exploitation. In Gautier, the Arabs put an end to the former, while in Madani, they swept away the latter. O ne would assume that France, which was claiming to achieve a civilizing mission, was none other than a new Rome. It was indeed the

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heir o f Rome because it established a system o f oppression and brought about the decline o f Arabic-Islamic civilization. O ne would also assume that Islam was the only means to achieve liberation. M ill15 on the other hand, unlike Madanî, mentions and quotes from the early sources, such as Ibn Khaldûn and Bakrî, and from the French historians, with whom he argues constantly, without considering them unworthy o f citation. But the French historians are approved only when they serve the goal o f Milt, and dismissed when they do not. The Berbers, in Mill s account, had never accepted foreign dominion. They were conscious o f their identity and achieved a great deal o f au­ tonomy under the Vandals and the Romans. They were finally unified under the leadership o f Kusayla. The Kahina succeeded Kusayla, and after an initial victory she was defeated. Most o f Mîlî s account is a polemic against Garrot. According to Garrot, the Kahina asked Hassân to accept her conversion, but he refused and attacked her, which forced her to run away and take refuge in a tunnel prepared for her by her daughter Mashûsha. Mill dismisses this thesis as an attem pt to denigrate both a great queen o f the Berbers and the greatest conqueror o f the Maghrib. Mil! writes: In brief, Garrots narrative contains an attack against the greatest conqueror of the Maghreb. This attack is unfounded. It also con­ tains a defamation of a great Berber queen, which is also un­ founded. Any one who looks at history with an objective eye would see her [the Kahina] as a pearl [embellishing] the history of women because of her good policy, great courage, and sincere defense of [her] country and adherence to principles.16 As a Salafi, Mili has the same concern regarding the unity o f the Alge­ rian nation as does Madanî. Having previously asserted the Semitic origin o f the Berbers by using Ibn Khaldûn against the French colonial histori­ ans, he supports, as does Madanî, his own thesis with the episode o f the Kahina. The Berbers fought the Arabs only because they thought that the Arabs aimed to conquer the country, but once they understood the Arabs’ intentions, they converted in large numbers. But still, the Kahina did not convert, nor when she asked her sons to do so was it out o f love o f Islam. She was from another age— one associated with misunderstanding the in­ tentions o f the Arabs. Her resistance was directed not against Islam, but against colonization. Here again one concludes that the Kahina fought the conquerors and not the Muslims, and as such she is a national hero to be claimed equally with Hassân.

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Both Mîlî and M adanî aim to repair the breach created by the French between the Berbers and the Arabs. T he Berbers are Semitic, and therefore they are close to the Arabs. They are unified by Islam, “the religion o f the true freedom, the religion o f the noble progress) (din al-hurriyya al-sâdiqa din al-ruqiyy al-sharif) ,17 so they constitute a nation. Indeed the Berbers constituted a nation long before the arrival o f the Romans, from the time o f Berber intermarriage with the Phoenicians, another Semitic people. Mîlî, however, sought to clarify his intentions, so he would not be accused o f preferring Arab dom ination either to Roman or to later French dom ination. The Berbers, in his opinion, accepted Islam rather than Arab authority. T he cause o f the apostasy o f the Berbers, so often used by the French to symbolize rejection o f Arab occupation, was only political. W hen the Caliph M u'âwiya annexed N orth Africa to Egypt, N orth Africa lost the autonom y that was so crucial to the Berbers. Berber rebellion ensued. Both M adanîs and M îlîs accounts consciously attem pt to construct a national history for Algerians, a history ideologically opposed to that o f the French historians. In these Algerian Salafi accounts, the Algerian na­ tion has existed for many centuries, since the Phoenicians. Arab-Berber duality notwithstanding, Arabs and Berbers are the same people, tied ra­ cially to one another since the dawn o f time. This account, however, was directed not only at the French, but also at the Frenchified Algerian elite. This elite was composed o f both Arabs and Berbers who had accepted French mythology, while endeavoring to assimi­ late. In their opinion, Algeria had no future other than that o f assimila­ tion.18 Ferhat Abbas, the most popular among the proponents o f this view, denied the existence o f an Algerian "nation” as such.19 Less concerned than others with the independence o f Algeria, the Salafis were anxious to present their movement as merely a religious one, intended to regenerate Islam and Arab culture.20 Nevertheless, the Salafi mythology would later serve the Algerian nationalists, including Ferhat Abbas, to justify their claim for independence, as well as the military methods used to attain it.21 The Ambiguity of a Tunisian Heroine Most o f the French colonial works were written in Algerian and Moroc­ can contexts. The Tunisians, however, could not remain insensitive to French colonial writings given that the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa is part o f the heritage o f each country o f the Maghribi region. As in the case o f Algeria, historical writings went hand in hand with a political effort to create a national consciousness, as a prelude to independence.

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The account I examine in this section was written in the early phase o f Tunisian nationalism by one o f its pioneers, 'A bd al-'Aziz Tha'alibi,22 a disciple o f M uhammad 'A bduh, a prominent figure in the Tunisian Salafi movement, and a noteworthy member o f the Destour Party.23 T ha'âlibî’s account o f the episode o f the Kahina is highly detailed, using a variety o f Arabic sources.24 The entire volume seeks to shed light on the history o f Tunisia, to counter the distortion o f what the author calls “the charlatan historians” (dajâjilat al-m u arrikhtn),25 referring to the French. Hassan, in T ha'âlibîs narrative, represents a continuation o f these Is­ lamic heroes, 'A bd 'Allah b. Abî Sarh, Abû al-Muhâjir, 'U qba (considered the greatest), and Zuhayr. Tha'alibi does not recount incidents, such as the conflict between 'U qba and Abû al-Muhâjir, which suggest a lack o f appreciation for these men. O ne example: he does not recount the miracle o f 'U qba which relates to 'U qbas request to the animals to leave the place where he wanted to found Qayrawân. Tha'âlibî, like the Salafi historians, preached precisely against belief in the miracles o f the saints. 'U qba has been considered a saint in Algeria, south o f Biskra, where his sanctuary has been a place o f pilgrimage and prayers. Mention o f this episode could have been read as recognition o f belief in saints. Whereas in Arab historiography Hassân was ordered, while fleeing, to remain where he was, in T ha'âlibîs account, Hassân is depicted as writing to the Caliph, apologizing and asking for further supplies, thus manifest­ ing his intent to fight the Kahina. The Kahina did not understand the goal o f the Arabs and therefore ordered the destruction o f the land. Ifriqiya was prosperous, full o f vegetation from Tripolitania to Tangier, as is men­ tioned by the Arab historians, but the Kahina changed it into a ruined and deserted land. Disorder, anarchy, and injustice became widespread in Ifriqiya because o f the Kahina’s policy. The Muslims asked 'Abd al-Malik to save Ifriqiya. After more than four years Hassân finally obtained assistance and moved in time to save the Tunisians. Tha'âlibî mentions the disunity o f the Berbers and the Kahinas order to her sons and Khâlid to join the Arabs. After her death, Ifriqiya found stability and peace. Tha'âlibî portrays the Kahina sometimes positively, sometimes nega­ tively. The Kahina is “the exemplary figure o f feminine courage in the history o f revolutions” (a'iâ m ithâl lil-basâla al-nisâ'iya f i târîkh althawarât).26 In her last battle her resistance is astonishing. She is a rare woman, who dies defending the dignity o f the country (humâ al-bilâd).21 The Kahinas portrayal, in T ha'âlibîs account, symbolizes an aspect o f Tunisian character: that o f revolt against invaders. Throughout its his-

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tory,28 Tunisia fought the Phoenicians (despite shared Semitic origins), the Romans, the Vandals, and the Byzantines, all for the same reason— a cat­ egorical rejection o f any form o f inequality and injustice. T he Kahina’s struggle is situated in this long tradition o f rebellion. As such, she serves to promote the myth o f revolutionary Tunisia. Nonetheless, the Kahina is also an anti-hero, because o f her unjust and oppressive policy. In her destruction o f the land and persecution o f the population, the Kahina is no longer distinct from previous invaders. The Arabs, by contrast, are those who defend Tunisia against injustice and disorder; as such they are the heroes. In T ha'âlibî’s account, the Kahina represents two diametrically opposed symbols. T he Kahina represents to the Tunisians what they love most— independence— and what they hate most— injustice. But there is further symbolism here. The Africans reject the Kahina— even though she is the symbol o f their defense— as soon as she adopts an unjust policy. In other words, the Tunisians, in the present as well as in the past, have continually fought not so much the outsider as his unjust system. This system is fought against even if it is adopted by some amongst the Tunisians themselves, such as the Kahina. T ha'âlibî does not maintain that the Arabs fought the Kahina and established their own authority. T he Arabs brought a system o f justice— Islam— which saved the Berbers from the tyranny o f the Romans. More­ over, the Arabs not only abolished the feudal regime, but also built roads and houses and encouraged agriculture and urbanism. In other words in this account, unlike the French historiography, it is the Arab who is a builder and brings justice. Given the importance o f the myth o f origin o f the Berbers, T ha'âlibî does not fail to give his opinion on the issue. His opinion, however, is an echo o f that o f his master, Bashir Safar (1863— 1917), who devoted an entire book to the pre-Islamic history o f N orth Africa.29 W hile the French maintain that the Berbers were originally Europeans, T ha'âlibî maintains in another volume30 that the origin o f the Africans was not only Semitic, but in fact Arab. The Africans migrated from the Arabian Peninsula, and the name Berber was given to them by the Romans, who called every nonRoman a Berber, as the Arabs called every non-Arab an 'ajam i.3i T ha'âlibî promotes the myth o f an Arab Tunisia. This myth is intended to tie Tunisia to the East, while maintaining Tunisia’s distinct identity. Tunisia is a part o f a whole— the East— but distinguished from the whole by its history and character. Moreover, given Tunisia’s long tradition o f revolutions, one would assume that the fate o f France, as a modern con­ queror with policies similar to those o f earlier conquerors such as the Romans, would be the same. In the past, Tunisia used the Romans against

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the unjust Phoenicians, the Vandals against the unjust Romans, the Byzantines against the unjust Vandals, and the Arabs against the unjust Byzantines. In modern times, an Arab-Islamic identity can be mobilized against the French. In Tha'âlibî’s account, the focus is on the myth o f the Arab savior and the myth o f revolutionary Tunisia. And it is precisely this mythology that fed Tha'âlibî’s ideology, clearly expressed in his La Tunisie martyre.32 The myth is that the situation o f Tunisia in the colonial period is similar to that o f Tunisia in the pre-Islamic period. The country then, as now, was divided between the Romans and the “Africans” or Tunisians. If the former were the “superior race,” the latter were “the inferior race.”33 The first one had all the rights; the second one had none. The Arabs swept away this anarchical situation by virtue o f Islam, by establishing a system o f justice and freedom where various ethnic and religious groups enjoyed the same rights.34 Tunisia has continuously fought colonists, not immigrants. Tha'âlibî, in this account, calls for abolishing the colonial system rather than eradi­ cating Europeans or French civilization. Indeed, Tunisia has always been open to external influences, as is apparent throughout its history. In the past, Tunisia took Seafaring from the Carthaginians; agriculture, irrigation, the taste for cities and monuments from the Romans; luxury and prodigal­ ity from the Byzantines. From the Arabs, religion and the sharp sense for justice, fraternity, democratic equality, sciences, letters, and arts. From the Turks, political and administrative organiza­ tion, social solidarity by [providing] assistance and charity through pious foundations, etc.33 Unlike the Algerian Salafi writers who prepared for independence by creating and propagating the myth o f an Algerian nation, Tha'alibi’s nar­ rative advocates abolishing the protectorate, and replacing it with a just system, that o f Islam. The Neo-Destour party has kept this same mythol­ ogy, dispensing with its religious basis.36

The Legend in Post-Colonial Arab Historiography A Shadow o f the Kahina Morocco was a protectorate like Tunisia. French rule was indirect— the Sultan ruled in name only, and most o f the decrees actually came from the Resident. As in Algeria, however, the French constructed a division be­

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tween what was known as bled al-m akhzen, that is, Maroc utile, effectively ruled by the Sultan, and bled al-siba, Maroc inutile, a territory o f dissi­ dence.37 This division appears as if the two areas are diametrically op­ posed. O pposition occurred not only between a ruled territory and an unruled one, but also between two demographic and ethnic territories. Arabs lived in the first territory, whereas Berbers lived in the latter.38 It was Charles de Foucauld, from the school o f Algiers, who first elaborated this division.39 But it was Robert M ontagne who gave it its most powerful formulation.40 M ontagne also used the Kahina to express his intransigent colonial position.41 For him, Islam is unable to assure either unity or equality among various ethnic and religious groups that include Christians, Jews, Europeans, Arabs, and Berbers. O nly a modern state, à la française, is able to provide cohesion and unity in N orth African societies. Robert Montagne mentions an example in Algeria o f two brothers from Constantine: one was completely and blatantly Frenchified; he even sent his children to French schools; the other brother knew only Arabic; he even founded the Algerian reformist movement. This did not prevent the two brothers from having deep affection for each other. However, this example clearly also says something else: that while some are willing to accept French rules, others are fighting them. But M ontagne consolidates his interpretation with the story o f the Kahina and her two sons. He asks: "D id not the Kahina, the heroine o f the Aurès, have two sons, one o f whom was an ally o f the Arabs and the other defended Berber independence?”42 The ques­ tion is an argument against the Arab states who in the early 1950s pressed for N orth African countries’ independence in the United Nations. Montagne insists on the fact that resistance to French rules does not mean acceptance o f Arab rules. In the history o f N orth Africa, as is shown in the story o f the Kahina, the land was always torn between two wills and two forces. But today, the French concept o f a nation-state can, in M ontagnes view, assure cohesion. The Moroccan reformists tended to attack the French ideologically through attacking the Sufis who became supporters o f the French. The Salafi movement aimed to renovate religion, to purify it from the accre­ tions o f the Sufis.43 In the post-colonial period, the Salafis thought they had largely attained their goal.44 But still, they were faced with the residual French ideology. O ne o f the earliest modern attempts at history-writing in N orth Africa by a Moroccan was undertaken by a member o f the Istiqlâl,43 a disciple o f 'Allai al-Fâsî,46 'A bd al-'Azîz Ben 'A bd Allah.47 His short account o f the Kahina is part o f a volume on the history o f Morocco. The military action in the legend is here judged as “discord” (frtna).48 This is because N orth

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Africa, in the authors opinion, was already largely Islamized by that time. The Berbers welcomed Islam from the beginning, that is during the first raid o f 'A bd 'Allah b. Abî Sarh. Hassân’s action was against the apostasy (,irtidâd)49 o f the Berbers. Having been defeated at first, Hassân made Khâlid infiltrate the Kahina’s population, so that Khâlid could inform Hassân o f her activity. The au­ thor maintains that she devastated the country. As for the cause o f the defeat o f the Kahina, he explains it as the absence o f the Byzantines who had lost their maritime supremacy. After the death o f the Kahina, the rest o f the Berbers converted. Ben 'A bd Allâh’s intention is to confirm that the Arabs were not m oti­ vated by material benefit, but by their noble desire to spread the faith, which consists o f “the principles o f democracy and the supreme values” (mabâdt al-dimuqrâtiya wa al-qiyam al-muthlâ).50 But besides this noble mission, the Berbers adopted a strategy which consisted o f “diplomatic flexibility” {al-murûna al-diblumâsiya). After the Islamization, only a few Arabs setded in the Maghrib. From this, Ben 'A bd Allâh concludes that the fa il? 1 was not Colonialism or settlement of exploitation, but it was a call for a new idea, crystallized in the tolerant principles of Islam.52 Ben 'A bd Allâh aims to dismiss the opposition between the Berbers and the Arabs. From the beginning, relations between the Berbers and the Arabs were not those o f dominant/dominated, colonizer/colonized, but rather those o f cooperation and brotherhood. As in the case o f the Salafi historians, the Berbers fought the Arabs in the beginning only because they did not know the Arabs’ intentions, and confused the Arabs’ inten­ tions with those o f previous conquerors. All the Salafi historians use as an argument the alleged declaration o f the Berbers describing the Arabs as wanting the wealth o f the country. The Berbers, after they converted to Islam, maintained their own autonomy and furthermore participated in the mission by carrying Islam to Andalusia. Ben 'A bd Allâh articulates the same myths we have discussed regard­ ing the Salafiya o f both Algeria and Tunisia. Islam served as a liberating force, and the Arabs were motivated by it. Moreover, though Islamized and consequently Arabized, N orth Africa is still a distinct country, and not an Arab colony. Ben 'A bd Allâh, like the N orth African Salafis and faithful to the teaching o f his master, Fâsî, maintained the same myth o f a Semitic N orth Africa. But Ben 'A bd Allâh went even further, asserting that the Berbers are in fact o f Arab origin. They are o f two groups: Butr,

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originally from Mudar, and Maghdis, originally from Yemen. Both groups settled in Syria, supporting themselves by agriculture. Already at that time, they were in touch with another group, the Phoenicians, who were o f Canaanite origin, and spoke a language very close to Arabic. This group used to live on trade. Both Berbers and Phoenicians met again in N orth Africa. They intermixed using a language close to Arabic (qaríba m ina al'arabiya al-fushâ).53 Together they built a great civilization that was later destroyed by the Romans. Even so, Punic remained a language o f N orth Africa. Ben 'A bd Allâh, in effect, reproduces 'Allâl al-Fâsîs discussion o f French colonial mythology w ithout, however, quoting him .54 Like Fâsî, he opposes Carthage to Rome, and dismisses the m yth o f Roman N orth Africa to confirm that o f a Semitic N orth Africa. Furthermore, Ben 'A bd Allâh went as far as his master in asserting the counter-m yth o f the Ro­ mans as destroyers o f civilizations. And while the French take as an ex­ ample Hassâns destruction o f Carthage, Fâsî and Ben 'A bd Allâh take the example o f the destruction o f Carthage by the Romans. They both confirm that Rome destroyed Carthage and brought about the decline o f N orth Africa. 'Allâl al-Fâsî, the Salafi, and most o f the Arab historians agree w ith the French on one point: France is the heir o f Rome. But the m yth o f a destructive Rome is o f course aimed at France. Like Rome, France aims at the destruction o f the identity o f N orth Africa. Like Rome, France aims at the exploitation o f N orth Africa. However, given the fret that N orth Africa has been Semitic and Arab since the beginning o f time, and that Rome was heroically opposed by them (in that neither Latin nor Christianity had a deep impact on the Berbers), the same fate as met the Romans, one would conclude, is awaiting France. N orth Africa is tied to the East; Islam and Arabic remain its fundamental defining char­ acteristics. Nonetheless, one thing separates the account o f the master and the disciple. Whereas 'Allâl al-Fâsî argues openly w ith the French, especially Gautier, Ben 'A bd Allâh uses them as arguments from authorities. H e extensively quotes Gautier to consolidate his points. G autiers mythology, however, is diametrically opposed to that o f the Salafi. Ben 'A bd Allâh takes only a half o f Gautier s argument, disregarding its ideological presup­ position. Gautier makes the distinction between nomadic and sedentary populations, considering the first to be o f O riental origin, and the second o f European origin. Ben 'A bd Allâh quotes Gautier only when he con­ firms the “Orientality” o f the nomads, so he can assert that N orth Africa is Semitic. Ben 'A bd Allâh also uses Renan as an argument o f authority, and also as a demonstrative argument.55 According to Renan a nation is

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both a collective share o f experiences and a will to participate in building a future. For Ben 'A bd Allâh the Arabs and the Berbers were fused in this way, thanks to Islam. But here again, Ben 'A bd Allâh omits the most im portant part o f Renans definition, which consists in the will o f a group to share the same destiny. Nevertheless, in this narrative tradition created by the M aghribi Salafi members, one can find a counter-mythology, opposed, p oint by point, to the colonial mythology. These narrative traditions, because o f the im portance o f the Salafi movement and its solid legitimacy drawn from the effort o f decolonization, have constituted a national heritage for the three countries o f the M aghrib. T his mythology is propagated by textbooks, which until recently reproduced the same accounts and, con­ sequently, the same counter-m ythology.56 These historical writings are constructed antithetically. T he question o f the Self is n o t posed to define in the first instance the Self, bu t it is posed, and answered, to dismiss the image the O ther has o f the Self. T he preoccupation is less w ith the construction o f oneself as w ith the Self as constructed by the O ther. This issue o f identity was posed differently in N orth Africa than it was in the East. Instead o f “W ho am I?” a question which preoccupied the Arabs since the beginning o f the N ahda (Arab Renais­ sance o f the nineteenth century),57 in N orth Africa the issue for histo­ rians and ideologues became rather WI am n o t w hat the O th er thinks I am .” M uch o f the effort is indeed directed to reject the image the French created in the colonial period.58 The Self, constructed negatively in opposition to the image the O ther made o f it, in a different context, is still adopted. The counter-mythology, created by the N orth African historians, is still alive in Islamist political parties which, whether legal or not, still believe in the same mythology.59 We shall return to this issue later on. The Egyptian Kahina It was in the name o f Islam and Arabness that the Salafiya movement in the three countries o f the Maghrib fought French colonialism so fero­ ciously. The French-educated intellectuals, who won the battle decisively, could not escape the influence o f Tha'âlibî, Safar, Ibn Bâdis, and 'Allât alFâsî. Thus, it was a struggle between the East (Arab and Islamic by defini­ tion) against the West— France, which is an assimilating colonial power and sought to erase the Arabic-Islamic identity o f N orth Africa. The inde­ pendent Maghrib was indeed une Andalousie retrouvée.60 It became, hence­ forth, effectively a part o f the Orient, a part o f the Arab world, and as

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such its present, its destiny, and its history were considered one with those o f the East. In Egypt especially, at the time o f the supremacy o f the Nasserist ideology, N orth Africa was an object o f national history. "National” is meant here to refer to the Arab nation. Abd al-Ham id Zaghlûl61 was an authority in the field not only in Egypt where he taught, but also in N orth Africa and elsewhere in the Arab world. In Zaghlûl’s opinion, the Kahina was not a Jewish Berber, b u t a pagan. She m ight have been assisted by the Romans in her resistance against the Arabs. As soon as this strange woman (im ra'a g hartbdf1 was informed about Hassâns decision to attack her, she undertook the destruc­ tion o f the M aghrib in order to discourage him. Thus, in Zaghluls ac­ co u n t, the d estruction took place before th e b attle and n o t after, contradicting the French and Arab historical accounts discussed above. Zaghlûl maintains that after the defeat o f Hassan, eighty o f his com­ panions were taken prisoner. T he Kahina released all except Khâlid whom she admired for his beauty and courage. T he authors com m ent about this action is different from that in other accounts. T he Kahina released the prisoners not because she hated the Arabs, but because she respected them. T he Kahina resumed her destruction o f the land after the victory. The author discusses the thesis o f the French historians according to which the Kahina did not destroy N orth Africa. In his opinion, all the old sources agree that she ruined the country. T he French thesis totally contradicts the consensus o f the early sources. T he Kahinas relation with the Byzantines (Rûm) was not as good as the relation she enjoyed with Kusayla. Due in large part to the destruction, many o f the Africans and Berbers left the country for Andalusia. Hassân was informed not by Khâlid, but by the Arabs who lived in Ifriqiya. The Kahina was a sorceress and could therefore find out what happened in her absence. Hassân was joined by the Berbers and attacked the Kahina at the time he knew to be propitious. T he Kahina, an intelligent and devoted fighter (dhakiya, fidâ'iya),63 fought ferociously twice: the first tim e near the Castle o f Jâm, the second time after she had fled Hassân on her heels, near the Aurès. It was then that she asked her sons to join the Arabs. Zaghlûls account does not refer to any o f the Salafi traditions regarding the history o f N orth Africa. Zaghûl uses the old sources extensively and the French account systematically, especially the work o f Gautier. It is by using these two traditions that Zaghlûl creates a third tradition, one with its own characteristics, differing significantly from both the old sources and the French account. Unlike the early sources, where history in general and the history o f the Arab conquest o f N orth Africa in particular take

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place under the watchful eye o f God, where a victory is a sign o f G ods will and defeat is His test for the believers, in Zaghlûls account, the his­ tory o f the conquest o f N orth Africa is the achievement o f the Arabs. The Arabs in the beginning were motivated by their desire to defeat both the Romans and the Berbers. Unlike their portrayal in the French account, the Arabs are not portrayed as conquerors or destroyers, but rather as libera­ tors. T he Arabs fought to save the Berbers from the Byzantines, and from themselves. As in modern times, France is identified with Byzantium and Egypt with the Arabs. Nasserism is engaged to save N orth Africa, and especially Algeria, both ideologically and militarily. In short, Egypt, sym­ bol o f the Arabs, saved N orth Africa from the French and also from them ­ selves because, one would conclude, many o f those who were involved in the war o f liberation were in favor o f the policy o f assimilation. T h at is to say that instead o f an Arab Algeria, they wanted a French Algeria. As the French historians include as fundamental to their mythology the European origin o f the Berbers, Zaghlûl maintains, in his turn, the myth o f the Semitic (or even the Egyptian) origin o f the Berbers. The Berbers, in his opinion, migrated originally from Asia to Egypt. Later, some o f them moved to N orth Africa while others remained in Upper Egypt. Thus, the Berbers and the Egyptians are both o f Asian Semitic origins. In Zaghlûls account, the struggle between the Berbers and the Arabs is not one for dom ination, even less one o f hatred. It is a struggle between ruin and disorder on the one hand and order and prosperity on the other. T he Kahina did not hate the Arabs; she respected them. T he Kahina is like a mirror, in this account, which gives to the author the image he makes o f himself. In an age o f colonialism, when the Arabs feel humiliated by the foreign occupation, respect is what is most needed.64 M yth, indeed, not only tends to justify or consolidate a situation, but it also reflects a need.65 Zaghlûls account contains an Egyptian mythology related to N orth Africa. His version o f the Kahina can be found in most o f the Egyptian historical writing on N orth Africa. And, as Arab nationalism was swept away by Islamic miltitancy, it incorporated an even stronger chauvinism. In a context where Egypt is no longer the center o f Arab nationalism, Egyptian historical writing today stresses the myth o f the Egyptian savior more than that o f the Arab savior.66 Even as late as 1994, one can read this in an Egyptian history o f N orth Africa: Was not Egypt the country that gave her men, her economy, her equipment, her army, and her children to undertake the conquests

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o f the Maghreb? . . . Egypt also spread Islam and Arabness in the land o f the Maghreb.67 The m yth o f Semitic, Egyptian, and Arab N orth Africa still survived. Historians with an Arab nationalist ideology no longer hesitate to main­ tain the Semitic origin o f the Berbers. Some o f them, even today, go further to articulate, from the same myth, the myth o f an Arab N orth Africa. The Berbers are no longer close to the Arabs because o f their Semitic origin, nor they are Canaanite. They are, in fret, real Arabs. Books such as The Arabness o f Algeria (' Urûbat al-Jazâ'ir),66 or The Arabness o f the Berbers ( ' Urûbat al-barbar),69 or even The Berbers Are Ancient Arabs (Albarbar 'arab qudâmâ)70 are still published today, propagating a mythology which feeds the Arab nationalist ideologies in the Mashriq, as well as in the Maghrib. An Anti-Colonial Kahina In the Salafí writing, there is an attem pt to demolish the colonial my­ thology. However, the chief aim seems to be the creation o f the national identity that the French sought to obliterate. T he Salafr reading o f the French account is not sound, nor is it complete. Mill refers to Garrot, a military officer who was not very influential. Even Ben 'A bd Allah, a Salafl with a French education, uses Gautier, w ithout seeing his ideological implications. O ne has to wait until the publication o f Décoloniser l'histoire, by M ohammad Sahli.71 Sahli, however, shows only the ideological implica­ tions o f the French colonial historiography, w ithout a criticism o f sources or an elaboration o f a counter-thesis.72 Discussing, for instance, Gautiers account o f the Arab conquest and the division made by Gautier between the sedentary and the nomadic population, Sahli notes that this division was intended to discredit the nomads, an im portant component o f the army o f 'A bd al-Qâdir.73 The virtue o f Sahlis book is heuristic. This book inspired the movement to decolonize history, the most noteworthy figure o f which is Abdallah Laroui, who undertook the decolonization process74 from Jacque Berque’s perspective.75 Laroui s book is indeed an im portant turning point in N orth African historiography.76 He is a French-educated historian, with a very wide understanding o f French colonial historians, some o f whom, such as Jacque Berque and Charles André Julien, were his professors, and with a broad knowledge o f Arab historiography.77 Let us see how he reports the episode o f the Kahina. Hassân b. al-N u'm ân attacked Qayrawân, which had fallen into the hands o f the Byzantines. A year later, he conquered Carthage. Laroui does

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not mention its destruction by the Arabs. Hassân goes on fighting in the N orth around Benzert. He was then confronted with the "opposition o f the Berber mountaineers.”78 Laroui tells us that this opposition was at the time under the leadership o f the Kahina. Laroui does not tell us her reli­ gion, nor does he mention the name o f her tribe. The Berber opposition was reinforced by armed Byzantine groups. Hassân was then faced with a coalition between the Berber mountaineers and the Byzantines, hence his defeat: Hassân went on fighting with some success in the northern re­ gions around Bizerte [Benzert]. But then he encountered the op­ position of the Berber mountaineers, now united under the Kahina, chief o f the Auris Mountains, and aided by armed groups o f Byzantines. Defeated in the Baghai-Tebessa region, Hassân with­ drew to Tripolitania, where he waited for the caliph to send him reinforcements.79 Laroui gives a new interpretation that makes his version radically different from the colonial one. In his account, the collapse o f the alliance is not the result o f the rivalry and hostility between the seden­ tary and nom adic populations as m aintained by G autier and Julien, but instead the result o f the rivalry between the Byzantines and the Berbers. In Larouis opinion, the Berbers o f the Aurès sought to pro­ tect their independence from the Byzantines. But the Byzantines were not pleased by such an attitude. Hence, their withdrawal from the coalition. Hassân attacked again in 76/695 and defeated and killed the Kahina in 79/689. As a result, the Berber resistance came to an end, and it was M ûsâ b. Nusayr who benefited from it. In this account there is no m ention o f Khâlid. It is im portant to mention that Larouis account is a conscious attem pt to demolish and decolonize the French historiography o f N orth Africa. His book is in effect a systematic critique o f the French historians. The account o f the Kahina is therefore only a piece within a whole, a tactic within a strategy. In fret, in this account there are three actors: Hassân, the opposition, and the Byzantines who assist the opposition. The objective o f the oppo­ sition is to prevent the Arab conquest, to defend the country. This is achieved successfully. In the second phase, the actors change. Hassân, having been tempo­ rarily defeated, is no longer on the scene. There are only the Berber oppo­ sition and the Byzantines. This opposition existed long before the arrival

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o f the Arabs. Laroui tells us that the Berbers have been resisting all invad­ ers, Roman as well as Byzantine. In the same Aurès mountains, there was resistance against the Vandals (477-484), and then alter 535, under the leadership o f Yabdas, against the Byzantines. Even after the defeat o f Hassân, the Berber opposition is still maintained with a similar goal— to preserve the autonomy o f the Aurès— but this time against the Byzantines them ­ selves. The Byzantines are no longer helpers but opponents who seek to dominate and annex the Aurès. Hence, the conflict is between the Berber opposition and the Byzantines. It is this situation which benefits Hassân, as the Berbers are faced with two opponents— the Byzantines and the Arabs. O ne can see that neither the Arabs nor the Berbers are presented with negative connotations. The Arabs, represented by Hassân, are heroic be­ cause o f the success o f their military action. The Berbers, defending their country, are heroes. T he Byzantines, who are represented by “lords” (propriétaires), are the real opponents, the anti-heroes. The Berber in this account, as in the entire volume, is not portrayed as passive and obedient, as he is in G autiers account. He has been a defender o f his autonomy for centuries. In G autiers account, the native population is divided into two groups. O n the one hand there is the sedentary population, Christianized, Romanized, and thus civilized. O n the other hand, there are the nomadic intruders who came with the camel from the East. The nomad rejects Occidental civilization and keeps his instinct for devastation. Laroui rejects this division. In his opinion, it is not the camel that created nomadism but rather a num ber o f historicosocial circumstances. The camel had been in the Sahara long before the nomads arrived.80 T he nomads are those who were chased by the Ro­ mans, who were incessantly pushed from their land to the periphery {limes). They did not accept this policy, but constantly fought it. During the Vandal occupation the struggle continued, weakening the Vandals and facilitating the success o f the Byzantine attacks. In the West o f the Maghrib, the Moors fiercely opposed Rome and attempted on many oc­ casions to unify the whole o f N orth Africa. Both oppositions, that o f the West and that o f the South, were against injustice, exclusion, oppression, and colonialism, and they represent a tradition rooted in the nationalist movement o f Masinissa. It is this same struggle which the Kahina led against both the Byzantines and the Arabs. W ith the Arabs it was a political conflict, not a religious one. And this is why the clash was ferocious, but the Islamization easy. The Arab conquest created for the Berbers the condition o f their au­ tonomy:

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The conquest, which consisted essentially in the imposition of Arab sovereignty, meant neither Islamization nor Arabization. Arabization required many centuries and Islamization was the work of the Berbers themselves. Even the recognition of the Arab sover­ eignty was ambiguous since the authority of the local chiefs was also recognized.81 The episode o f the Kahina serves to articulate the myth o f a free North Africa, aware o f its own identity, eager to keep its autonomy, and willing to fight for it. The Kahina is only one example, among many, o f heroes who lead nationalist resistance against the invaders. This myth is intended to give the N orth Africans confidence in themselves in the critical period o f post-colonialism. Colonialism not only exploited N orth Africa but, by means o f ideology, also deprived the N orth African o f his history and identity, w ithout which he is unable to act. Laroui attempts to destroy the negative myth and replace it with a positive one. Laroui s mythology, however, is not only opposed to that o f the French but also to that o f the Salafis. He opposes both the myth o f a Roman N orth Africa and that o f a Semitic N orth Africa. Whereas the first myth was intended to exclude the Arab and include the Berber, thus creating a breach in N orth African society, the second myth was intended to reject the French and strip the N orth African o f his identity by transforming him into an Arab. In neither case is N orth Africa allowed to be itself. Laroui s myth is in-between and yet opposed to both preceding myths. In the beginning N orth Africa was inhabited by a mixed population. It had known an Eastern migration as well as a Mediterranean one. Thus North Africa is neither a part o f the East nor a part o f the West. N orth Africa— and this is its destiny— integrates both, as it has always done. In Laroui s account, the Kahina is an anti-colonialist because she led the opposition against the invaders— Berbers and Arabs alike— and her ex­ ample is an additional proof o f a firmly rooted tradition o f nationalism in N orth Africa opposed ideologically to the myth o f an eternally dominated N orth Africa. M oham m ad Talbi, another M aghribi historian very concerned with decolonizing N orth African history, expresses a similar mythology, though his interpretation o f the legend is different.82 In his account,83 the Kahina is neither a Berber nor an O riental, b ut she is o f mixed blood, o f Berber and Roman origins. As for her religion, she is not a Jew, but a Christian. The Jrawa, according to Talbi, were Judaized, as Ibn Khaldun m aintains, but then they converted to Christianity. In fact, Talbi op­ poses all the French interpretations, and dismisses their mythology while

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he articulates another one. T he Kahina, in Talbi’s account, is like N orth Africa itself, diverse in race as well as religion. She has been open to all influences. T his diversity constitutes the fundam ental characteristic o f N o rth Africa.84 Yet, the Arabs were fought bitterly, because the Berbers had a long tradition o f fighting for their independence. T h e Kahina took “the torch o f resistance from Kusayla”85 who him self continued the tradi­ tion o f Masinissa and Jugurtha.86 But the Berbers were always unable to found a nation.87 O n e can hear G autier in this sentence. Talbi dif­ fers fundam entally w ith Laroui on this point. W hereas Laroui thinks th a t the cause o f the Berber d isunity is th e colonizer, Talbi, like G autier, thinks that it is rather the division am ong the Berbers them ­ selves. N onetheless, Islam brought to the Berbers the means to realize their unity. T he Salafi m aintain th at the Arabs were liberators o f the Berbers, b ut Talbi does n ot thin k so. T he tru th o f the m atter accord­ ing to him is that from the beginning the Arabs looked askance at the Berbers, exhausting them w ith all kinds o f taxation. Some taxes could even be paid in exchange for hum ans, especially w om en.88 In o ther words, like the French, the Arabs created a m ythology against the Berbers, em bodied in false hadiths w hich circulated against the Berbers portraying them as the lowest, m eanest people on earth. This tradition was m eant to justify the arbitrary and unjust policy o f the Arabs. T he Berbers, however, were faithful to their tradition o f struggle. T hey took the ideology o f the w inners and used it against them . It is thanks to Islam that the Berbers fought the Arabs successfully, in the nam e o f Kharijism. T hey paved the way for the Aghlabids who con­ stituted a nation independent from the Arabs. In both Laroui s and Talbi s accounts, the Kahina is an anti-colonialist, fighting any invader whether Oriental or Occidental. This version projects itself on to the present situation. N orth Africa is neither O rient nor Occi­ dent, and yet she integrates both into her own personality. It is open to both, w ithout being absorbed totally by either o f them. It looks at both the East and the West, and it is this duality which makes its personality original. It would no longer be itself if it excluded one o f these two parts. A N orth Africa with only an Eastern aspect is merely a marginalized part o f the East, and a N orth Africa with only a Western aspect is only a pale copy o f the West. But a N orth Africa assimilating both is beyond a doubt itself, original and stronger. T his tradition is the m ost com m on am ong scholars nowadays. A nd even though Laroui affirms explicitly that his history is an ensemble o f hypotheses that are intentionally form ulated to oppose the colonial

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ones, he has been used as an authority, and his hypothesis as a con­ firmed thesis.89

Fragments o f M emory An Enemy o f the Muslims The legend o f the Kahina has not been transmitted only through writ­ ing, but also orally by different groups. It is interesting to find out if this oral tradition was fed by modern historiography, or developed indepen­ dently and separately. It is also worthwhile to examine a variety o f tradi­ tions and see how each was developed by a different group, and for what purpose. Oral tradition about the Kahina existed in N orth Africa, mainly in Algeria and Tunisia, long before the arrival o f the French. But it was thanks to the French that some o f this tradition was collected, translated, and published. In the Aurès, Féraud and Masqueray provide us with a collection o f traditions about the region. Féraud90 translated a collection by a certain Adwani, who wrote down a number o f popular narratives related to both Algeria and Tunisia. Masqueray91 published another collec­ tion already translated by Cabrissot, an interpreter in the Bureaux Arabes, and enriched it with his own comments. This collection is limited only to the West Aurès, which is the original Aurès, that o f the Kahina. Both collections contain similar accounts, as Masqueray has observed, and most probably the author o f the first used the second. Both traditions are vague. They include no dates, ignore chronology, and are made up only o f fragments attached to places. Most o f the narra­ tives explain a name o f a place, be it a city, a village, or even a ruin. In Kitâb E l Adouani, for instance, there is much about Kusayla as well as a few hints about the Kahina. Explaining the foundation o f Tunis, the tradi­ tion maintains that In the time when Koceila-ben-louzem became the sovereign, his daughter named Tounès, wanting a place for amusement with Christian girls, begged her hither to build a palace. Koceila let her have what she wanted and the new edifice, located on the edge of the sea, took the name of Tounès. It was there where the city of Tunis was afterwards founded.92 To explain the name o f a town called Liana, the tradition says that uLian was the son o f Koceila-ben-Lemezen, Kelb-Roumia ['the dog o f a

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Roman woman’], who massacred the Companions o f the Prophet when they came to Africa with Okba.”93 Koceila, the tradition continues, or­ dered the destruction and the poisoning o f the wells. In like manner, an explanation is given for the name o f the city o f Biskra: The first name of this city was Sekra, meaning the city of ecstasy. Others say that it takes its name from its founder Biskra-benKahil-ben Loui . . . son of Abraham. His descendants lived there until the time of Mellag, the lord of the Aurès and the father of the Kahina.94 The tradition goes on, explaining how Mellag married the daughter o f the ruler o f Biskra and how he fought his stepfather in an attempt to take over Biskra, but in vain. In Adouani, there is no mention o f the resistance o f the Kahina. Even though both Gautier and Masqueray maintain that the narrative regarding the poisoning o f the wells relates the deeds o f the Kahina, the action is attributed here to Kosayla. Gautier especially, making the parallel between the Aurès and the South o f the Sudan where he found the legend among the Tuareg, thinks that the two characters are fused,95 the personality o f the Kahina with the name o f Kusayla. This interpretation does not stand because the narrative about Kusayla is very similar to that which one finds in the historiography. In Masqueray, conversely, there is more about the Kahina and nothing about Kusayla. This is because this tradition is concerned only with the original Western part o f the Aurès, the area o f the Kahina. In Masqueray, there is a whole narrative about a Companion o f the Prophet who in his heroic trajectory faces, among other opponents, the Kahina. The hero’s name is not Hassân, nor the famous 'U qba, but 'A bd Allah b. Djafar. O ne is reminded o f 'A bd Allâh b. Abî Sarh, the Arab general who, under Caliph 'U thm ân and by his order, launched an expedition against Ifrîqiya. The narrative is not concerned only with the Kahina but summarizes, in its own way, the whole episode o f the Arab conquest. The tradition also reports the episode o f Gregory. In this tradition he is named only as the chief o f Tunisia. His daughter lamina falls in love with 'A bd Allâh and joins the Muslim army. 'A bd Allah writes to the Either, asking him to convert to Islam. The Either then orders all o f his army to embrace Islam and dies instantly.96 T he Aurès area was inhabited by Romans under a monarch, Babar, whose capital was Tafrent. His wife, who was o f royal origin, was sup­

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posedly the Kahina and was named Djmaa. Babar and Djmaa had eight children. T he tradition m entions the names o f only three: Es Semech, the oldest, D jokhean the youngest, and one bearing his fathers name, Babar. Es Semech succeeded his father, but his reign was brutal and unjust. A friend o f his killed him. His mother, Djmaa, replaced him. H er reign was exemplary until the arrival o f the Companions o f the Prophet,97 'A bd Allah b. Djafar, 'U qba, and others. But Ali b. Abi Taleb remained in the Orient. 'A bd Allah b. Djafar, who established Islam from Egypt to Tunis, wrote to Djmaa asking her to adhere to Islam. Djmaa, however, refused and opted for military confrontation. T he battle was bitter, fierce, and long. Seeing that the outcome o f the battle was not in her favor, Djmaa ordered her sons to join 'A bd Allâh b. Djafar. They all embraced Islam. As for Djmaa, it is said that she ordered her servant to poison her. After her death, the Romans converted to Islam. In these fragments o f memory, one can easily see that there are two periods o f tim e tied to each other, the present and the past, today and yesterday. T he past sheds light on the present; it explains it. W ith o u t the past, the present is unreadable, indecipherable. T h e past w ithout dates is, however, firmly rooted in places; better yet, the past is present. W ith out the existence o f cities like Tunis and Biskra, one could not remember w hat happened. Doubtless those are the places that recall the memories, b ut they still need an explanation, that is, a narrative, a m yth o f origin. In both traditions, but especially in that collected by Masqueray, the major axis is the period o f Islamization. There is indeed very little men­ tion o f other ages, and Masqueray himself was astonished that the Berbers did not commemorate any Roman ruler, even though the Romans were great builders. For the Berbers o f the Aurès at that time, the origin o f time is none other than that o f the Islamization. Time is bilateral, as in all Islamic societies. Before Islam is a dark past, a Jâhiliya, followed by the age o f Islam, an age o f lightness and faith. Both Kusayla and the Kahina belong to the age of unbelief, that o f the Rûm. This is why one would be inclined, as was Masqueray himself, to think that the Berbers believe that Kusayla and the Kahina were Rûmi. In some ways they were Romans, because they belonged to the Roman age. In like manner, in the Islamic period the Berbers thought o f themselves only as Muslims and expressed their traditions only in Arabic, the mark o f Islamization. The Berbers, at that time, identified themselves as Muslims, so that neither Kusayla nor the Kahina symbolized them. Kusayla and the Kahina were rather the symbols of the Rum.

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Unlike history based on arguments drawn mainly from documents and very concerned about chronology, dates, and issues, the traditions about the Aurès are vague, but taken as true. These traditions provide the Berber an explanation o f the past and o f how his land became Islamic. T he story is that o f the life o f a Muslim, a hero whose trajectory is similar to that o f a hero o f a folktale. Kusayla and the Kahina, on the other hand, do not have a trajectory. They are both merely obstacles in the way o f the hero. These traditions were not limited to the Aurès; they existed throughout all Algeria. In N orth Africa, transm itting traditions and memories was not only the task o f the family (especially the grandparents), but also institu­ tionalized. T he m addâlf* was in charge o f narrating the events o f the past. O ne could find him in every city, village, or sometimes neighborhood, telling the stories o f the Companions o f the Prophet, o f the Hilali, o f saints, and also o f the city or the region." In one o f these stories, the hero is not 'A bd Allâh b. Djafar, but Sidi Okba: Sidi Okba received at the foot of the massive, majestic Aurès, the surrender and the presents of the Kahina. The corpses o f the infi­ dels killed by the holy man formed a mountain as high as the Ahmar Khaddou [Red Cheek] who, embarrassed by his smallness, blushed out of shame.100 In this narrative, the story is that o f Sidi O kba, and the Kahina is only the symbol o f the obstacle eliminated by the deed o f the hero. T he memory is also tied to places, the Aurès where the Kahina dwelt and the m ountain Ahmar Khaddou (Red Cheek). The myth explains the name o f the m oun­ tain, whose cheek became red with embarrassment because Sidi O kba in­ timidated it by his extraordinary achievements, by killing a huge num ber o f infidels whose corpses piled up to make a higher m ountain than Ahmar Khaddou. In all these narratives, Kusayla and the Kahina are not symbols o f groups, and they do not (unction as heroes o f a specific group. It is the Muslims, O qba and 'A bd Allâh b. Djafar, who are the symbols o f the Muslim group. An Enemy o f the Jews N orth African society was not composed only o f Muslims, but also included an im portant Jewish minority. O ne would expect that neither 'U qba nor any other Muslim o f the conquest would be a hero o f the Jews.

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O ne could well ask: How in a given religious society does a minority perceive not the heroes o f the majority, but its anti-heroes? The example o f the Kahina provides us with an answer. In the nine­ teenth century, it seems that there was already an oral tradition about the Kahina among the Jews o f N orth Africa, especially Tunisia and Algeria, reported by Cazès.101 We have seen how this poem functions as an argu­ ment from authority in Cazèss account o f the Kahina. Let us see now what it tells us about the Jewish memory o f the Kahina. W hether the Kahina was not a Jew because, as Cazès maintains, she persecuted her own people, or whether she was a Jew who punished a group o f her people mistakenly, as Véhel says,102 she is not a positive character in the Jewish memory. The Kahina, whether Jewish or not, was a persecutor o f the Jews. There is no mention whatsoever o f any Muslim character. Memory o f the Kahina tells only about a moment o f suffering, o f persecution. The Kahina in this case is a symbol o f the enemy for both the Muslims and the Jews. Both groups are unified by their attitudes to an enemy that each group understands differently. The Kahina as an antihero unifies both Muslims and Jews. Slouschz, who traveled in N orth Africa, noticed that the only difference between the Muslims and the Jews was that the first referred to Sidi Mohammad, and the second to Sidi Musa.103 O ne would conclude from the legend o f the Kahina that the N orth African Jewish community was tied to the Muslim majority, in that they shared with them the symbolism o f their anti-heroes.104 T he M emory o f History An Enemy of the Arabs Tunisia kept some continuity with its past even during the colonial period, because it had already been constituted as a nation-state by the effort o f Ahmad Bey. French rule was indirect and the Tunisian intellectual elite preserved their cultural activity. Algeria on the other hand, and to a lesser extent Morocco, were cut off from their past. The image o f the past was not fundamentally altered in Tunisia, especially among the masses. The legend o f the Kahina still expresses adherence to specific values and belonging to the Arabo-Islamic community. She was called the Kahla, the Black. She used to eat nothing but raisins, and she was a sorcerer. She wanted to become equal to the king of Egypt. She took one of his sons to kill him. No one could defeat her. She cut off water by her magic, and she ravaged the

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oases only to show her strength. She destroyed everything and left. How did she die? She died o f her own magic, this sorcerer; the evil that she did was turned against her. For the person who scares everybody, we say he is mean like the Kahina.10’ T he Kahina in the post-colonial period is still an enemy. This tradition has its origin, undoubtedly, in the old oral heritage o f Tunisia. This ac­ count does not reflect any new situation. The Kahina, in the Tunisian social imagination, is the anti-hero not only o f Egypt but o f the Maghrib as well. H er actions were directed against both the king o f Egypt and her own people. T he opposition is not between Maghreb and O rient, but between the Kahina, the symbol o f Evil, and the M aghrib and Egypt, both territories o f Islam. The evil Kahina, black in a large space o f light, is the incarnation o f the smallness o f Evil in a large territory o f Islam, composed o f both Maghrib and O rient. In this space o f light, that is o f Islam, the Evil consumes itself and dies by its own force o f destruction. If she under­ took some actions against her own people, they were as transitory as evil itself, as the m ihna (“test”) o f the Muslims. But Evil as such is doomed to dissolution in a world o f good, light, and faith.106 This account contains the essence o f the Arab sources we have dis­ cussed. Despite its vagueness and lack o f precision (both marks o f oral m emory),107 the essence o f the symbol remains— the Kahina is an Evil destroyed by Islam. In Algeria, instead o f continuity we And versions created mainly from school textbooks, transformed in such a way as to serve the present. My informants told me that the history they were telling me was taught to them in school, by instructors, or fuqahâ whose Islamist orientation was patent. Their narratives are not clear. Some points are forgotten and others reversed, but the essential is unchangeable. Let us quote the narrative o f an Algerian graduate student in comparative literature: Islam was established in Algeria by 'U qba b. N âff al-Fihn. Both Kusayla and the Kahina were opposed to 'Uqba; they led the resistance. Kusayla was a traitor and a coward. Before 'U qba he showed that he was with the Muslims, but behind him he plotted. He did not respect his contract with the Muslims. 'U qba killed him as he knew about his intrigues. As for the Kahina, I can not remember whether she was killed or she surrendered to 'Uqba. I contest the use of the word resistance; I prefer to talk about those who did not accept Islam. The Kahina was a Jew. No, I think she was a sorceress, this is why they called her the Kahina. The Jews say she was a Jew, because she wanted to gain the Kabyles to their

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side, and say we too were there. The Jews manipulated history, and what they did For Algeria is what they also did for the world. This is the judaization oF history [tahwid al-târikh]. My inquiries were made in France among Arab Algerians in the sum­ mer oF 1994. The general atmosphere was marked by the clash between the army and the Islamist movement aFter the interruption oF the electoral process in January 1992. Violence spread in Algerian society in such a way that the two main rivals, the army and the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), attacked those whom they thought were the others sympathizers. The Algerian community in France was watching the situation very closely, but somehow helplessly. The military junta lost any kind oF legitimacy and maintained its order by Force, backed by France which was hostile to the establishment oF an Islamic state in its backyard. The legend oF the Kahina, as it is told by my inFormants, reflects this situation in Algeria. My questions were about the Maghrib, but all oF the answers were about Algeria. In these accounts, the use oF words is highly significant. Words such as “conquest” and “resistance” are avoided. The first implies colonization, which the Arab Algerians hate. They do not like to make a parallel between the Arabs in the Maghrib and the French, as some French authors108 and the Berberists still do. The word “resis­ tance,” on the other hand, is somehow sacred, refering to the resistance oF the Algerians to the French. Its use in the case oF Kusayla and the Kahina might also suggest a parallel between the Arabs and the French. 'U qba, and not Hassân b. al-N u'm ân, is the hero o f the Islamization, .while the Kahina and Kusayla are the enemies o f the Muslims. In these accounts, in addition to the Kahina, one flnds three other opponents, the Jews, the Kabyles, and the French. The Jews maintain that the Kahina was a Jew in order to gain the Kabyles’ support in their oppo­ sition to the Muslims. The Kabyles, manipulated by the French, are op­ posed to the Muslims. The opposition is not to the Arabs, but to the Muslims. As in the present situation, the Muslims believe that the Jews, the Kabyles, and the French are hostile to the advent o f Islam in Algeria, as were Kusayla and the Kahina in the past. But, as in the past, the future is For Islam.

A Heroine of the Berbers A myth is characteristically an object o f strong belief and as such it has an extraordinary power of survival. It dies only to emerge in another Form, functioning in different circumstances.

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The belief in French colonial mythology in todays France is now un­ doubtedly not as widespread, nor as strong as it used to be during the colonial period. However, this same mythology has been transformed and adopted by another group— the Berbers, or more specifically Berber na­ tionalists. In fact, Berber nationalist mythology is indeed the first-born child o f French colonial mythology.109 The French mythology functioned to legitimate the colonial system, and simultaneously created breaches within N orth African societies by di­ viding, as well as other groups, the Arabs and the Berbers. The French did not divide Algerian society, for instance, in order to allow the Berbers to cultivate their particularism and abandon their divisions. The French did not create conditions for the Berbers to revive their heritage.110 Instead, believing in the European origin o f the Berber and in his racial and cul­ tural retardation, they created French schools to civilize him and to help him catch up to the level o f French civilization. So instead o f Berberization, the French intended to Frenchify the Berbers, given that Berberism is nothing more than the primitive state o f the Europeans themselves. O ne would conclude that Berber culture, as well as language, would in this case join the museum o f folklore. Young Berbers were educated in French schools; they were thus sub­ jected to the great power o f the French ideological apparatus. Their his­ tory, their culture, and their (supposed) origin were exactly those elaborated by Mercier, Gautier, Marçais, Albertini, Gsell, and other French colonial historians. T he French created, in spite o f themselves, a Berber national­ ism. Paradoxically, this mythology was first turned against the French. The Berber youth, specifically those who were educated in French schools, represented the most radical group opposed to French colonialism, and they were the most supportive o f military action against the French sys­ tem. Most o f them were only teenagers; they expressed their militancy in Berber poems about Saint Augustine, Jugurtha, Masinissa, and o f course the Kahina.111 The Berbers, and more specifically the Kabyles, made up most o f the adherents o f the radical organization o f Messali Hadj— the Parti Populaire Algérien (PPA). Confronted by their Arab compatriots, they mostly re­ jected the idea o f an Arab Muslim Algeria and opted for an Algerian Algeria that would be Berber as well as Arab. Hence conflicts arose. The first was the crisis o f 1949.112 The Kahina, in this context, is no longer a common enemy as she was in the colonial period, but a national hero who symbolizes independence, and the Berber struggle against the colonist— whether Roman, Turk, or, implicitly, Arab. Thus the French mythology failed in the long run, but its

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consequences lived on. Since the Arab-Berber confrontation w ithin the Algerian political parties, both the Kahina and Kusayla, but more the first than the second, have been used as symbols o f refusing the “Arab-Islamic” ideology. The Berberist movement has focused especially on language as a corner­ stone o f Berber nationalism.113 Most o f the production o f this movement is in linguistics. In N orth Africa, history is produced by apparatuses o f the state. The North African historical accounts we have discussed reflect the dominant ideology, which is predominandy Arab nationalist. In France, by contrast, historical writing about the Maghrib is less political and less politically moti­ vated in the post-colonial period. French contemporary scholarship on the Maghrib, heavily influenced by the Annales school,114 tends to focus more on the present than on the past.113 And when the past is studied, it is less in its political dimension than in its cultural manifestation. If writing is controlled, orality is less so. In a society that has long been marked by orality, and where information circulates by word o f m outh, there is an oral tradition about the Kahina. T he name Kahina was given to children, even when the Arab nationalist ideology o f Houari Boumediène was firmly d o m in a n t,116 long before the famous “Berber Spring.”117 Berberism has always been active in N orth Africa and in France. The Algerian state was Arabist in its orientation, w ith Islam as its official reli­ gion and Arabic as its official language. Indeed, the FLN, faithful to its ideology during the war o f liberation, opted for an Arab Algeria instead o f the Algerian Algeria that was vehemently demanded by the Berberist move­ ment. T he Berberist frustration was deep, especially given that government policy also involved material interests.118 The tension between the Berberists and the state has remained in existence since independence, sporadically creating some serious crises.119 T he year 1988 was a turning point in the history o f modern Algeria.120 T his was when the Arab-Islamic ideology, inherited from the Salafi move­ m ent and adopted to legitimate a weakened regime, gave birth to an Is­ lamist movement whose members were active preachers in schools and universities which had been left to Arabophone teachers after indepen­ dence.121 Let us examine the account o f one o f my informants, a Kabyle im m igrant in France: The Kahina is a Berber heroine who fought against the Arab con­ quest. She defeated the Arabs, but later, because of the supremacy of Arab weaponry, she was defeated. This is history, and one can not deny it. The Kahinas name was Dihya. The name o f the Kahina was given to her by the Arabs. It does not mean that she

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was a Jew. Those who maintain that she was a Jew sought to discredit her, so she can be rejected by the people. As for her religion, I think she was an atheist. My Berber informants are not precise about the Arabs. They do not mention any name. There is only the Kahina and a collective opponent, the Arabs. T he names o f specific places are not mentioned. T he Kahina fought the Arabs in the Maghrib or in Algeria. In short, like any social memory, that o f the Kabyles about the Kahina is vague and ignores dates in most cases, but the account itself is undeniably historical (on ne peux pas nier l ’histoire). Though the story o f the Kahina may vary from one inform ant to another, the pattern is the same: the Kahina is the Berber heroine who fought the Arabs for independence. T he Kahina remains a very strong symbol that identifies the Kabyles, and the Berbers in general, like their lands, their region, and their villages. To say that one is a son o f the Kahina, in the Algerian context, is to say that one is a Berber. C hil­ dren may know this from an early age, most likely from the same time when they know who they are and where they live. For one can still see today in the Aurès children playing and singing this song: Anâ sh-shâwî w ald sh-shâwiya; Sâkin f i lûrts, wlâdî mshunshiya; Bâbâ Yugharta, Yamma dalkahina. 1 am a Shawi [man], son o f a Shawiya [woman]; I live in the Aurès, my sons are mshunshiya; Daddy is Jugurtha; M ommy is the Kahina.122 In December 1993, a friend o f mine gave me a message he had received by electronic mail (e-mail) from a group o f Berbers living in the United States o f America. The message is in two parts. A Berber woman sent this message in English to the group: I was talking to a Jewish person over at a friends house. This person seemed very knowledgeable in Jewish affairs. She said some­ thing that really amazed me. She said that some o f the tribes (non Arab-tribes) have a Jewish origin. She claims that the name o f our famous queen (Kahina) is really C O H E N — the famous Jewish name. Being o f Berber origin myself, I am really curious. T he Berber w om an knows the Kahina, and is even interested in her. But she is confused by the Jewish account o f the Kahina. T h e fact that the

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Kahina is a symbol o f different groups, and in this specific case, o f the Berbers and the Jews, is the cause o f confusion. T he Kahina is a symbol o f the Berbers. They identify with her, and they see their struggle against Arab nationalism as a continuation o f that o f the Kahina. But a symbol unifies only one group, and automatically excludes another. In this case, the Berber woman is confused by the syncretism o f the two symbols that she doubted were one. T he Kahina is a symbol o f both Jewish and Berber N orth Africans. Let us see the reaction o f another Berber from the same group, who replies: You don’t seem to know a lot about your history. In fact, the tribes have espoused the Jewish religion in the beginning as a first monotheist religion. They had afterwards converted to Christian* ity (Saint Augustine), then to Islam. O f course, the penetrations and the phenomena of assimilation-integration that had touched the most remote zones of exchange (therefore, the less exposed), such as the mountains, were less touched by this phenomena [i/V]. This is why one finds in Morocco, in the Rif and the Atlas, more Berbers and Jews. The Moroccan Jews are from a Berber ethnic origin. They are brothers of blood of all other Maghrebis. It is religion and not ethnicity that separated them in distinct groups. As for the Kahina/Cohen, it is nonsense. The Kahina’s name was Dihya. It is the French colonizers who called her Kahina, maybe actually from the name Cohen. W ithout a doubt, this was done with an agenda. In fact, she also was Jewish in a country not yet Islamized. In this account, the author attempts to obliterate the opposition be­ tween the Muslims and the Jews by maintaining that the religious origin o f N orth Africa is Jewish. He then maintains the solidarity o f the Berbers as well as o f the N orth African Jews by relating them all to wa Berber ethnic group.” It is religion that separates them. In the context o f the Algerian "civil crisis,” the author emphasizes the function o f religion, even­ tually Islam, which separates and creates oppositions among les frères de sang. In the view o f an Algerian group, especially the secular intellectuals and the Berberists, religion is a cause o f division and prevents the com­ plete cohesion o f the society. Especially for the Berberists who opted ini­ tially for an Algerian Algeria, only a secular Algeria would allow the establishment o f a real democratic society. In the Berberist discourse, and also in the narrative under discussion, a tradition o f anti-colonialism remains. The name “the Kahina” is given to

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the Berber heroine by the French for reasons which remain unmentioned by the author o f the narrative, but one can easily infer that this is not an innocent omission. H er Jewishness is not only confirmed, but justified. The Kahina was a Jew because everybody was Jewish, including the Arabs in Medina. The ideology is, however, more articulated where debate occurs. In the same context, that o f the clash between Islamists and their opponents, but in France, another text uses the Kahina and expresses a Berber ideology. The text on this occasion is a poem by an anonymous author who first gives us his opinion in prose about the situation in Algeria. Let us first cite a poem:123 N umidia for the losers Arab-Muslim for T he conquerors W hen the welcome . . . became submission Kabyles o f shame For having denied theirs, Kahina, Saint Augustine To honor Saladin W hile waiting to understand him

in silence humiliation covers hatred but when the heart is in trial the wind will gush forth in sentence to those ever silent truth will spurt out justice and slowness coincide avoiding thus the remorse o f the soul . . .

The text was published as a reaction against an account o f a reader who presents himself as a “fundamentalist.”124 History for the Islamists starts with the advent o f Islam. Their model is the Medina o f the Prophet and his Companions. For them, Algeria has two pasts, a pre-Islamic past, a Jâhiliya, and an Islamic past opened by a Com panion o f the Prophet, 'U qba, which was interrupted momentarily by the French and later by their secular fellows, “the party o f France” (hizb fransa). It is time to re­ store the continuity and establish an Islamic state. The pre-Islamic past o f Algeria is suppressed, ideologically speaking, and with it the Berber component o f Algerian society. T he FIS, but also the FLN before it, ig­ nite the Berberist movement by denying the Berberness o f Algeria. By trying to suppress it, they increase and radicalize Berberism. This phe­ nomenon is not unique; the French did the same with the Arabness o f Algeria. In this text, Arabs are not seen as a part o f Algerian society but as conquerors. Algeria itself is referred to by its pre-Islamic name, Numidia. The author not only opposes Arabs to Berbers, but particularly opposes Arabs to those Berbers who denied the Kahina and Saint Augustine. The

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Kahina and Saint Augustine symbolize the past o f Algeria or, better yet, the essence o f Numidia— Berberness. Both the Kahina and Saint August­ ine symbolically unify the Berbers who reject both Arabism and Islamism and recognize themselves as Berbers only. And because the FIS is not an exclusively Arab party, and could thus gain the support even o f Berbers, the author attacks those Berbers who have rejected Berber identity sym­ bolized by the Kahina and Saint Augustine, and who have adopted Arabism, whose symbol here is Saladin. This, however, they do unknowingly be­ cause they do not understand Arabism. In some ways, the anonymous author o f this text keeps the Islamist Berber on the side o f the Berbers w ithout identifying him with the Arab. The Islamist Berber’s adherence to Arabism is based on ignorance. There is, however, more in this text. It is composed, as one can see, in two columns. The first column is negative, describing a state o f “conquest” and “submission,” the conquest o f Numidia by the Arabs, and the submis­ sion o f the Berbers to the conquerors. The column refers both to the past, when Numidia was Berber, and to the present, when Numidia has become Algeria. In like manner, the submission is both that o f the past, when the Berbers adhered to Islam, and that o f the present day, when the Berbers adhere to the FIS. The second column is positive and is opposed to the first one, in space as well as in time. If the first column is that o f disorder, the second one is that o f order, when, because the situation is not normal, the “truth” will take over. Numidia will become itself, while the Kahina and Saint Augustine will be recognized even by the Berber who denies them. The second column is apocalyptic. It describes the attitude o f the Berber in the situation o f permanent denial and in the specific context o f the threat o f the FIS. The Berberist ideologues and politicians barely hide their intention for autonomy.125 In any event, for the Berberist movement, the Kahina is the symbol o f Berberness as well as the symbol o f the struggle against Arab hegemony. During the Algerian civil war, the Kahina has been claimed as such. O n September 21, 1994, the Mouvement pour la Culture et la Démocratie (M C D )126 organized an enormous protest, not only against the deteriorating situation o f Algeria, but especially against the FIS, regarded henceforth, because o f its ideology, as an Arabo-Islamic hegemony. The legend in this context was also used by the French them­ selves, faithful to their politics o f minorities. One can still read in Le Monde: From the struggle o f the fierce Kahina, the Berber queen, who was opposed to the Arab conquest, through “the Berberist” crisis o f

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1949, until the protests of April 1980 which was [sic\ violently repressed, “the glowing embers,” to use the expression o f the aca­ demic Salem Chaker, never extinguished.127 It is clear that the author o f these lines is drawing a parallel between the Arab conquest and the crises o f 1949, 1980, and 1994. The history o f Algeria, it is assumed, is that o f a conflict between the Berbers and the Arabs. T he Berbers since the time o f the Kahina have been defending themselves against the hegemony o f the Arabs. O ne can still see that the Kahina, in this context, explains, as she did in the colonial period for the historians, the relation between the Arabs and the Berbers. After all, myth is a mental tool to explain things. It may disappear if it is not needed, but it remains in the subconscious o f a population to be enlisted when needed.

A Female Heroine T he Kahina, a common anti-hero symbol in pre-colonial N orth Africa, has been transfigured not only by the Berbers, but also by another group— the N orth African Jews. Colonial historiography promoted, among other images o f the Kahina, that o f a Jew originally from the East, so as to justify the integration o f the Jews into the European community. This mythology was first turned against the French themselves as it was with the Berbers. I was informed that in Tunisia, the Jews, hostile to French colonization, used to give the name Kahina to their baby girls. In this context, the Kahina was a symbol o f resistance to the invader, yesterday the Arabs and today the French. In the post-colonial period, the Kahina has played another role for the Jews who have immigrated to France. Some intellectuals, and artists, al­ most all living in France, created an organization o f Tunisian Jews called the Kahina. N orth African, Jewish, and French, this group intended to promote original cultural and artistic activities. The Kahina was believed to be a Jew and as such she provided a symbolic link w ith their roots in N orth Africa. Opposition to Islam was not the point, or so I have been told. But still, we are far from the age when N orth Africa, with its different groups— Arabs, Berbers, Muslims, and Jews— shared the same symbolism o f antiheroes. The chasm which developed during the colonial period was deep and serious. T he sharing o f the symbolism o f the heroes assures the cohesion o f a society, but it is not a sufficient condition. The sharing o f the sym­

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bolism o f the anti-heroes is even more necessary. In the colonial period, as a consequence o f divisive policy, different groups adopted the symbol­ ism o f their own heroes as well as the symbolism o f the anti-heroes o f others: the Kahina, the anti-heroine o f the Arab N orth Africans, became the heroine o f the Jews and Berbers. The cohesion o f the society was undermined. Be that as it may, the identity o f the Kahina is unknown, hence her appropriation by various groups. She can be a Berber, an Arab, a Byzan­ tine, a Jew, a Christian, or a pagan. Only one aspect is largely consistent— she is female. It is understandable that she was soon adopted as a symbol by women, and was used first as a symbol against foreign occupation and later as a symbol against male hegemony. Indeed, during the period o f colonization, the Kahina was already a model for the militant women who fought the French.128 In the Kabyle insurrections o f 1851 and 1857, women such as Lalla Fathma and Lalla Khadija Bent Belkacem, who were known as warrior leaders, took the Kahina as a model.129 It was after independence that the Kahina was systematically claimed as a model for N orth African women. Kateb Yacine, a Berberist and feminist writer, used the Kahina as an example o f the privileged situation o f women in pre-Islamic N orth Africa. N orth Africa was ruled in the past by women and the situation deteriorated for women only with the establishment o f the Arabs.130 We shall return to Kateb Yacine later on. Let us first examine a feminist account o f the Kahina by an Algerian feminist, Zhor Ounissi, published in a feminist magazine, Djazairiya.131 In this account, the Kahina is a pagan queen from Jrawa. From the outset, Ounissi makes the Kahina the symbol o f the Algerian woman who is equal to man. In her opinion, a primitive society such as that o f the Aurès knew no hierarchy amongst its members except in natural qualities. The existence o f a heroine such as the Kahina is, in itself, proof that the society was healthy. Such a society can only choose the most competent person to rule. Thus the Kahina was chosen because o f her outstanding qualities. This implies that belief in the mental and physical weakness o f women was not prevalent in that society. It also implies that political opportunities for women were not limited and that leadership by women was possible. For the Arabs on the other hand, such ideas, one would conclude, did not exist. Ounissi concludes that because Hassân failed to accurately assess the potential o f his female adversary, he was defeated in spite o f his large army. The author attributes such a lack o f ideas to the Arabs rather than to Islam. Islam, on the contrary, liberated women from this mentality.

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As for the eventual victory o f Hassân, Ounissi explains it by Algeria’s need for belief. As in the Salafi writing, the Algerians adhered to Islam only when they realized that the Muslims were not motivated by material interests. Ounissi does not deny the destructive action o f the Kahina, but she attempts to make it a normal military tactic (taktik harbt).'}2 According to the author, this tactic has been used during the two world wars, and even the French adopted it in the Aurès. To defend the country, the Kahina had no other alternative. As for her death, Ounissi maintains that she died as a queen and cites her age as one hundred and twenty-seven, as found in Ibn Khaldûn. In this text one can still discern the deep influence o f the Salafi and Algerian nationalist ideologies. The Arabs did not really conquer Algeria; they only brought Islam as “a guiding spiritual idea” ifikra rûhiya hâdiya)m to improve the spiritual life o f the Algerians. Ounissi writes: All this was done because the Algerians chose Islam out o f their own conviction and free will, and they preferred it to different religions which reached Algeria through the Romans and others, by force or without it.134 It should also be noted that there are neither Berbers nor Arabs, but only Algerians. Moreover, it was Islam that unified the Algerians and re­ fined their morals. But one can see through this text that Algeria had two pasts, one lacking spirituality and in a state o f social disintegration and suffering (the Jâhiliya o f the Salafi), and the other one o f spirituality and national union (the age o f Islam). The first, however, is that o f the Kahina, when women had all the rights o f men; they could occupy the highest positions in society and were not restricted by any laws controlling their lives. The second age, by contrast, is that o f denial o f womens rights on the ground that they are mentally and physically weak. O ne may think that this discontinuity is concomitant with the establishment o f Islam. Ounissi, however, makes it an effect not o f Islam but o f the Arabs, who inherited this mentality from earlier ages. Islam itself was established in opposition to this mentality. In Ounissi s account, one concludes that Al­ geria gained its spiritual unity and social integration thanks to Islam, but lost it at the same time because o f the Arabs. In reality, it is not Islam that is responsible for this situation. This text was written at a critical m om ent in the history o f Algerian women; in 1970, a date marked by the deterioration o f their situation and considered as the first emergence o f fundamentalism.135 It is in the situa-

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tion o f repression that an oppressed group tends to have recourse to, or even make up, heroes and heroines. The Kahina is used to prove that it is not Islam that is against the rights o f women, but it is rather men who are opposed to womens rights. The Kahina is also used to prove that women are more than equal to men, by asserting the superiority o f the Kahina over men. Hence, there are two pictures in the magazine, one showing the Kahina haranguing a group of passive men, and another showing the Kahina standing with her sword at the head o f a dead man. Thus the Kahina is superior to men not only mentally, but also physically. Ounissi mentions the Kahinas great body that supposedly astonished the Arabs by its heavi­ ness. O ne can see that the Kahina is used as a hero for the Algerian feminist. As the FLN ideology increasingly used Islamic symbols to maintain its legitimacy, Ounissi subtly established not only that Islam is not against womens rights, but also that it was the Arabs, whose mentality regarding women Islam opposed, who were the real culprits responsible for the dete­ rioration o f the status o f women. In other words, one would conclude that those who claim that women must stay at home are anti-Islamic, as fir as their position on women is concerned. The Kahina, symbol o f the Muslim anti-hero, is for women a symbol o f a heroine. It should be noted, however, that this case is different from that of the Berbers and the Jews. In this case Algerian women, as a political minority, already share the symbolism o f the hero and differ from the majority on the symbolism o f certain anti-heroes. The Arabs are not really considered as anti-heroes in spite of their negative attitudes toward women. After all, they brought Islam to Algeria, and without this, unity would not be possible. Women constitute a repressed group, tied to the majority, but express their fundamental differences by identifying themselves with antiheroes. The repressed group in this case, because o f exclusion, believes that society considers it as an opponent. We have previously seen that because the legend o f the Kahina repre­ sents a myth o f origin, a beginning that presumably sheds light on the present, it was used in the colonial period as the source o f a multitude o f texts which contain a mythology justifying the colonial system. For this reason, the episode gained great importance for the Arabs, both during and after the colonial period. The main aim o f Arab historians was to thwart this mythology, while re-writing the same episode and establishing a mythology that justified the struggle for independence. I have distinguished, by examining the Arab historiography, three basic narrative traditions. The first one, the Salafi, was elaborated during the colonial period. The second one was written in the context o f Arab na­

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tionalism, and more specifically Nasserism. T he third one was created by the N orth African nationalists themselves. These three traditions have one thing in com m on— they are all a negation o f the French colonial mythol­ ogy. Composed antithetically, they owe their existence to the French colo­ nial mythology. In the Salafí tradition, the discourse is fundamentally polemical, having as a chief aim the discrediting o f French writing. It is a discourse made o f oppositions. T he Salafí tradition reports the French thesis and negates it. W hile the French m aintain the thesis o f Roman N orth Africa, the Salafis adopt the thesis o f a Semitic N orth Africa. W hile the French defend the European origin o f the Berbers, the Salafis m aintain the Semitic origin o f the Berbers. W hen the French depict the Roman as a builder and the Eastern nom ad as his anti-hero, viscerally opposed to his civilizing mission and instinctive destroyer, the Salafis reverse the situation completely, mak­ ing the first second, and the second first. T h e Salafí discourse, though containing the same m ythology as the French, also has its own distinctive elem ents, bearing the marks o f the situations w here it was created. In A lgeria, w here th e French claim ed the inherent inability o f the Berbers to constitute a nation, the Salafis m aintain th at Algeria has always been a nation since the Phoenicians, a Semitic people, mixed w ith the local population, Semitic themselves. T h e French, anxious to Frenchify Algeria by R om anizing its past, draw a parallel between themselves and the Romans. T h e Al­ gerian Salafis, seeking to tie Algeria to the East, draw the same paral­ lel b u t inversely. For them both Rome and France are colonial powers, responsible for the decline o f Phoenician civilization in the past, and Arabic civilization in the present. T hus, the Algerian Salafí m ythology provided Algerian youth, including those who were already Frenchified and hoping for assim ilation, an effective weapon against the French.136 It was indeed in the nam e o f the Algerian nation, Arab and M uslim , th at the struggle for independence was carried out. In both Tunisia and Morocco, the Salafis had a concern similar to that o f their peers in Algeria— the reform o f religion and the revival o f Arabic culture— and o f course the same intellectual source— the Egyptian Salafí movement. Their situation was nonetheless different. In Tunisia, the French were supposed, by virtue o f the protectorate, to help modernize the coun­ try. T he young Tunisians, first enthusiastically hoping for help, were soon convinced o f the colonial exploitativeness o f the French. Hence T ha'âlibî expresses, through the episode o f the Kahina, the same Algerian mythol­ ogy and articulates another myth specific to the Tunisian situation— the myth o f a revolutionary Tunisia. A m yth which explains how Tunisia,

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through her history, was a land o f migration for both men and ideas and an arena o f struggle against any unjust system, has to be that o f the Kahina, that is, o f a Tunisian. In Morocco, where the French sought to divide Arabs and Berbers, the Salafi writings were concerned mainly w ith the myth o f a Semitic N orth Africa. This myth tends to maintain the perfect cohesion o f Moroccan society and implicitly denies any opposition be­ tween the Arabs and the Berbers. T he Arab nationalistic mythology was also born as a negation o f that o f the French. Unlike the Salafis, the Arab nationalists disregarded the reli­ gious basis o f their mythology. T he Arab nationalists articulated the myth o f an Arab N orth Africa tied ethnically, from the beginning o f time, to Egypt and the Arab East. Arabs and Berbers were not, as in the Salafi tradition, two groups o f Semitic origin, whose links were strengthened by Islam; rather, both groups were Arabs who migrated from the East to Egypt and then to N orth Africa. Islam has been adopted because it is an Arab idea. T he N orth African nationalist tradition is fundamentally hybrid. It con­ joins the French colonial mythology and the Salafi one. Its authors them ­ selves are a product o f two completely different systems, born and educated in the colonial context which was marked by the conjunction o f two sys­ tems— the Eastern and the French. In this tradition, N orth Africa is tied to both the East, as in the Salafi tradition, and to the West, as in the colonial tradition, through the m yth o f a m ultiethnic N orth Africa. How­ ever, while N orth Africa is a part o f both the East and the West it is, in effect, neither. Longevity is one o f the most salient characteristics o f a myth. All the myths articulated through these narrative traditions survive today. T he Salafi tradition is undoubtedly the most popular. As early as the colonial period, it constituted the basic support o f Algerian ideology and the means for the struggle against colonialism. T he Salafis themselves have been, in most cases, in control o f the most im portant ideological apparatuses o f the state— the ministries o f education and o f religious affairs. T he govern­ ments themselves, although two o f them are secular (Algeria and Tunisia), used the same mythology when their legitimacy weakened with the emer­ gence o f a post-colonial generation for whom the struggle against colonial­ ism did not have the significance it had for the older generation. As for the Arab nationalist tradition, which is itself weakened by the emergence o f Islamic militancy, it still survives and is still propagated through a vast literature. T he proliferation o f the nationalist discourse does not really reflect its popularity, but rather reflects increasing weakness in the face o f the growth o f the Islamist discourse. T he N orth African nationalist

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tradition gained only an intellectual audience. Articulated originally in French, it still retains a French tone even when it is translated into Arabic. Its lack o f popularity may also be explained by the fact that the N orth African masses feel themselves to be more a p an o f the East than a p an o f a West that constantly rejects them .137 French colonial mythology has not survived only negatively. In fact, the Berberists adopted it as well. But once appropriated by this group, it is no longer the same. It does not justify the colonial system; it consolidates the claim for a Berber Algeria. Today, this mythology is widely diffused among the Berbers, whether in Algeria or in France.138 These three narrative traditions, plus the Berberist one, feed the oral traditions o f today. W hether Arab, Berber, Jewish, or feminist, the oral tradition is drawn exclusively from writing— currículums, scholarly books, and literature, as we shall see in chapter 5. Whereas the discourse o f the state is officially Arabo-Islamic and seems homogeneous, at the level o f the masses the discourse, though predominantly similar, reflects diversity and especially contradictions among groups. The mythology o f most o f the Arab speakers is fundamentally opposed to that o f the Berbers and the Jews. Compared with the pre-colonial oral tradition, it reveals a seri­ ous breach introduced by French colonialism. This is an everlasting con­ sequence o f French colonialism: the mythologies o f N orth African ethnic and political groups are not just different, but radically opposed to each other. Notes 1. J. Desparmet, “Le Panarabisme et la Berbérie,” in Rensignements coloniaux, nos. 8 -9 , August-September, 1938, p. 194. 2. This parallel has been noted by many actors and scholars. See, for in­ stance, J. Berque, Le Maghreb entre les deux guerres (Paris: Seuil, 1962); En­ glish translation by Jean Stewart, French North Africa (London: Faber and Faber, 1967) p. 391. Also 'Allai Fâsî, Al-harakât al-istiqlâliya f i al-maghrib (Tangiers: Abd al-Salam Jasus, 1948), English translation by Hazem Nuseibeh, The Independence Movements in Arab North Africa (Washington, D.C.: Ameri­ can Council o f Learned Societies, 1934), pp. 7 -8 . 3. For the celebration o f the centenary, see Ch.-A. Julien, L’A frique du Nord en marche-, L. Tourneau, L’évolution politique (Paris: A. Colin, 1962), pp. 305-24. Also Berque, French North Africa, pp. 215-31. 4. Ibn Bâdis quotes the Arab proverb: “idhâ wasala al-shay' ilâ haddih, raja'a ilâ diddih,” Al-Shihâb, 1930, p. 578. Q uoted by J. Berque, as “the thing having reached its end, turns into its contrary,” French North Africa, p. 390.

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5. J. Desparmet, “La résistance à l’Occident,” in Afrique Française, May 1933, pp. 265-269. Also his article about Madanî and Mîlî’s history, “Naissance d’une histoire ’nationale’ de l’Algérie,” in L’A frique Française, July 1933, pp. 387-92. 6. For the influence of Muhammad 'Abduh, see especially A. Merad’s ar­ ticle, “L’enseignement politique de Mohammad 'Abduh aux Algériens,” in Orient, no. 8, 1963, pp. 75-123. 7. T. Madanî (1899-1983) was born in Tunisia, the son of Algerian par­ ents. After his primary Arabic education, he attended the University of Zaytûna without being affiliated to it officially. From the first, Madanî was influenced by Tha'âlibî. He was soon arrested because of his political activities, and after his release he was exiled to Algeria. There, he was associated with Ibn Bâdis and contributed to the foundation of the Association of Ulemas (1931). Madanî was the historian of the association; his writings inspired Ibn Bâdis in his debates regarding the Algerian nation and the issue o f the Berbers. After independence, Madanî was appointed minister of culture in the first provi­ sional Algerian government, and after independence he became the Algerian ambassador to Egypt, and minister of the Awqâf. See F. Ibn 'Âshûr, al-haraka al-adabiya wa al-fikriya f t túnus (Cairo: Ed. Arab League, 1955), p. 133; J. Berque, “Ça et là dans les débuts du réformisme religieux au Maghreb,” in Etudes d ‘Orientalisme dédiées à Lévi-Provençal, vol. II (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1962), pp. 471-94. M. Mahfuz, Tarâjim al-mu'alliftn al-tûnisiyyîn (Beirut: Dâr al-Gharb al-Islâmi, 1985), vol. IV, pp. 230-90. Madanî is also an author of an autobiography in three volumes, Hayât Kifâh (Algiers: alSharika al-Wataniya li-nashr wa al-Tawzic, vols. I and 2, 1977; vol. Ill, 1982). 8. Mîlî (1897-1945) was a disciple of Ibn Bâdis, whom he knew at Constantine. Mîlî, like Madanî, was educated at the Zaytûna. He was very active in spreading the Salafi teaching, and his contribution to the formation o f the movment was considerable. In addition to his teaching and his history book, he wrote a Risâlat al-shirk, in which he articulates the Salafi doctrine. He was at the same time a contributor to the magazine of the movement, AlShihâb. See, for his biography and his contribution, Merad, Le réformisme, pp. 91-93, and passim. 9. T. Madanî, Qartâjannah 'abra arba'ati'usur (Tunis: M atba'at al-nahda, 1927; second edition, Algiers: Mu’assasa al-wataniya, 1986). 10. T. Madanî, Kitâb al-jazâ’ir (Algiers: Matba'a al'Arabiya, 1932). 11. T. Madanî, Qartajânnah, p. 154. 12. Ibid., p. 156. 13. Ibid., p. 157. 14. Madanî, Kitâb, p. 19. 15. M. Mîlî, Târîkh al-Jazâ’ir (Constantine: n.p., 1932; second edition, Algiers: Maktabat al-nahda, 1963), vol. 2. 16. Ibid., p. 23. 17. Ibid., p. 37.

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18. R. Zenati, a Kabyle instructor, wrote at that time: “There can be only one possible policy in Algeria, it is a French policy with no restrictions, which is manifested by a loyal collaboration for an ultimate assimilation o f the au­ tochthons.” Cited by Le Tourneau in L'évolution, p. 314. 19. I quote this known passage by Ferhat Abbas, regarding the Algerian nation: “I have asked history, I have asked the living and the dead; I have visited the cemeteries: no one has talked to me about it.” Ibn Badis’s answer is equally known: “We too have looked in history, in the present and we have noticed that the Algerian Muslim nation has been formed and it exists.” Cited by Le Tourneau in L'évolution, p. 314 and p. 319. 20. A. Merad, Le réformisme Algerian. 21. The goal is too obvious not be seen by the French, Desparmet wrote, in this respect, “Its goal is political. It has to prepare the next generation for an independence from which they had been discounted.” In “Naissance d’une histoire ‘nationale’ de l’Algérie,” L'Afrique Française, pp. 391-92. 22. Sheik 'Abd al-'Azîz al-Tha'âlibî (1874-1944), after his education at the Zaytûna University in Tunis and the Azhar University in Cairo, joined, in 1909, the party of the évolués founded by Bachir Sfar and Ali Bach Hamba in 1907. Tha'âlibî became the most important figure of the Tunisian nationalist movement after the publication in Paris of his book La Tunisie martyre in 1919. It is a sound criticism of the French protectorate, to which he contrasts the constitutional regime of the reformist beys before the establishment of the protectorate. He was arrested in 1921. In 1923, he fled to Italy to avoid being arrested again. He then traveled in the East, including India and Iraq where he taught Islamic thought for five years. He also participated in the Congress o f Jerusalem. After his return to Tunisia in 1937, he was marginalized, as the Destour Party lost popularity, because of his concessions to the French regard­ ing the suzerainty of Tunisia, in favor of the Neo-Destour Party of Habib Bourguiba. See, for his bibliography, Mahfïiz, Tarâjim al-mu’a llifin al-t&nusiyln, pp. 281-91. For his political and intellectual activities, see Julien, L'Afrique du Nord en marche, pp. 65-73, and Ibn 'Âshûr, Al-haraka al-adabiya, pp. 11723. 23. The Destour Party was created in February 1920, with the goal of attaining independence. Though Arabic-Islamic oriented, its adherents were from different social groups, including lawyers as well as Zaytûna-educated members. In 1921, the Destour, because of these contradictions, modified its program, and no longer defended independence, but demanded reforms. As a result, it lost its popularity in favor of a faction of members, mainly lawyers and French-educated intellectuals, who, in 1934, formed a new party, known as the Neo-Destour. See Julien, L'Afrique du Nord en marche, pp. 3-92. Also C. Brown, “Stages in the Process of Change,” in Tunisia, the Politics o f Mod­ ernization, ed. Ch. A. Micaud (New York: Praeger, 1964), pp. 3-66. 24. A. Tha'âlibî, Târîkh shamâl ifriqiya (Beirut: Dâr al-Gharb al-Islâmi, 1987). The book is a posthumous publication, originally published as a series

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of articles most probably between 1937 and 1944. It is not important that this book was not published in the context of colonization, because my aim is to analyze the mythology of Tha'âlibî which was certainly expressed during his golden age in lectures and political articles. The aim is to show that this mythology fed the ideology of the Tunisian Salafi movement. 25. Tha'âlibî, Târîkh, p. 74. 26. Ibid., p. 61. 27. Ibid., p. 77. 28. A. Tha'âlibî, La Tunisie martyre (Paris: Jouve, 1920; second edition, Beirut: Dâr al-Gharb al-Islamî, 1985). 29. B. Safar, Mufakkirât wa maqâlât târtkhiyya (Tunis: Matba'at al-Nahdah, 1928). 30. A. Tha'âlibî, M aqâlât f i at-târîkh al-qadîm (Beirut: 1986). This book was published posthumously in 1986; it was published first as ar­ ticles in Irâdah, the magazine of the Destour Party, nos. 3 -9 , 1939, and 6-17, 1939. 31. Ibid., p. 15, footnote no. 2. 32. Tha'âlibî, La Tunisie martyre. 33. Ibid., pp. 179-80. 34. Tha'âlibî, La Tunisie martyre, second edition, p. 29. 35. Ibid., p. 188. 36. Julien, L’A frique du Nord en marche, pp. 63-92; L. C. Brown, “Stages in the Process of Change,” in Tunisia, the Politics o f Modernization, pp. 3 8 -

66. 37. There are two versions of this dichotomy, including a French one, whose proponents are Robert Montagne and Ch.-A. Julien, among others, maintaining that the bled al-siba was actually outside the Sultans sphere of power. In other words, Morocco had never been unified as a country until the arrival of the French. The Moroccans, including Germain Ayache and Abdallah Laroui, maintain, by contrast, that the bled al-siba is nothing more than a territory of dissidence, the authority of the king having always been recog­ nized even during times of protest. 38. See for instance Julien, L’A frique du Nord en marche, p. 162. 39. Charles de Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc (Paris: Challamel, 1888). 40. See especially Montagne, Les Berbères et le Makhzen (Paris: 1930). For a geneaology of the siba concept, see Abdelmajid Hannoum, “L’auteur comme authority en etnographie coloniale: Le cas de Robert Montagne,” in La sociologie musulmane de Robert Montagne, edited by François Pouillon and Daniel Rivet (Paris: 2000). 41. Robert Montagne, “L’Orient contre l’Occident,” in Etudes, February, 1953, pp. 145-59. 42. Ibid., p. 156. 43. J. Abu an-Nasr, “The Salafi Movement in Morocco," in St. Anthony’s Papers, no. 16, 1963, pp. 90-105.

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44. 'Allai al-Fâsî, “Al-haraka al-salafiyya fî al-maghrib,” in Hadith al-maghrib f i al-sharq (Cairo: 1956), p. 26. 45. In 1927, different Moroccan political movements, including the Re* formist movement presided over by 'Allai al-Fâsî, formed a coalition to found a new political force, known as the Nationalist Movement. Members formed the Committee of Patriotic Action (kutlat al-'amal al-watani), calling for so­ cial and economic reforms, but without questioning the protectorate. The French authorities ignored their claims. Dissension occured among the na­ tionalists, and as a result Hassan al-Wazânî, another major leader, left the party; al-Fâsî became the undisputed leader o f the Nationalist Movement, henceforth called the Nationalist Party (al-hizb al-watani,). In 1943, while Fâsî and other important members were in exile, Ahmad Balafrij founded the Istiqlâl Party (Hizb al-Istiqlâl). A year later, the party published a declaration of independence, “Manifesto of the Istiqlâl Party.” Julien, LAfrique du Nord en marche, pp. 125-54 and pp. 239-41. 46. 'Allâl al-Fâsî (1910-74) was educated at the Qayrawân theological seminary. He was highly influenced by the Salafi thought of al-Afghâni and especially Muhammad 'Abduh. He was one of the principal leaders of the Moroccan Nationalist Movement. Because of his political activism, al-Fâsî was arrested and exiled to Gabon in 1937. In 1946 he was allowed to return to Morocco. To serve the Moroccan cause abroad, he left for Cairo in 1947. Al-Fâsî remained, until his death, the ideologue of the Istiqlâl. A. Gaudio, Allai El Fassi (Paris: A. Moreau, 1972). 47. A. Ben 'Abd Allah, Târtkh al-Maghrib (Casablanca: 1960), 2 vols. 48. Ibid., vol. 1, p. 78. 49. Ibid. 50. Ibid., p. 79. 51. The word fath, always translated as “conquest,” does not have the same connotation in Arabic as in European languages. In Arabic, it means literally “opening,” as if “the Islamic conquests” open a new area in the conquered countries, an area of Islam and an ending of the Jâhiliyah. Therefore, these conquests are good. 52. Ben 'Abd Allâh, Târtkh, vol. I, p. 81. 53. Ibid., p. 45. 54. Fâsî, The Independence Movements in Arab North Africa, pp. 1-8. 55. E. Renan, “Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?” in Oeuvres (Paris: C. Levy, 1947), vol. I, pp. 887-906. 56. Let us mention just a few titles from a very vast literature. For Algeria, A. Jilâlî, Tarikh al-jaza'ir al-'amm (Algiers: 1954—55), 2 vols. For Tunisia, H. Husayn Abd al-Wahhâb, Târtkh Tùnus (Tunis: 1925); H. Thâmir, Hâdhihi tiittus, (Beirut: Dâr al-Gharb al-Islâmi 1988). For Morocco, M. Mashrafî, Aljadtd f i târtkh al-maghrib (Tangiers: 1958). I. Harakât, Al-Maghrib 'abr altârikh, (Casablanca: 1965).

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57. A. Laroui, L’idéologie arabe contemporaine (Paris: Maspero, 1967), p. 15. 58. Laroui himself is no exception among North African ideologues. 59. The place of the Salafi members in the apparatuses of the state, espe­ cially in education and religious matters, was predominant. Madam himself was minister of education; Fâsî was minister of Islamic affairs. The Moroccan government has been mainly made up of members of the Istiqlâl Party for the whole postcolonial period. The Istiqlâl Party is still today one of the most important political parties. See, for Algeria, on the influence of the Salafi on the emergence of the FIS, Ahmed Rouadjia, Les frères et les mosques (Paris: Karthala, 1990), especially pp. 141-55. For Morocco, John Waterbury, The Commander o f the Faithful (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970). 60. Berque, French North Africa, (1979) p. 460. 61. S. 'Abd al-Hamîd Zaghlûl, Târîkh al-Maghrib (Alexandria: Mensha’at al-ma'arif, 1965), second edition, 1979. 62. Ibid., p. 218. 63. Ibid., p. 225. 64. See, among others, Gustave Von Grunbaum, “Self-Image and Approach to History,” in Modem Islam (New York: Vintage Books, 1964); W. C. Smith, Islam in Modem History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957). 65. C. Lévi-Strauss writes: “The myth is certainly related to given facts, but not as a representation of them. The relationship is of a dialectical kind, and the institutions described in the myths can be the very opposite of the real institutions. This will always be the case when the myth is trying to express a negative truth.” C. Lévi-Strauss, “La geste d’Asdiwal” in Anthropologie structurale (Paris: Plon, 1973); English translation by Monique Layton, “The Story of Asdiwal” in Structural Anthropology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), p. 172. 66. See especially H. Munis, Fath al-Arab li-al-maghrib (Cairo: Maktabat al-’adab, 1947; second edition 1980. See also his recent book, Târîkh almaghrib wa hadâratuh (Jeddah: Dâr al-Sa‘udiya, 1990) pp. 100-109. 67. A. M. Ghunaymi, M awsû'at al-maghrib al-'arabt (Cairo: 1994), p. 7. 68. M. A. Madûn, 'Urûbat al-barbar (Damascus: Al-Markaz al-'Arabi, 1992). 69. U. Sa'di, 'Urûbat al-jazâ’ir (Algiers: 1982). In this authors opinion, the Kahina, like all the Berbers, was Arab. At the arrival of the Arabs she realized, by her intelligence and experience, that her own origins were Arab, hence her order to her sons to join the Arabs (pp. 29-31). 70. M. M. al-'Arbâwî, Al-barbar 'arab qudâmâ (Rabat: Al-Majlis al-Qawmi, 1993). 71. Mohammad Sahli, Décoloniser Thistoire (Paris: Maspero, 1965). 72. For a review of this book, see A. Laroui, “Décoloniser l’histoire," in Hespéris, vol. VI, 1965, pp. 239-42. 73. M. Sahli, Décoloniser Thistoire, p. 75.

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74. A. Laroui, L’histoire du Maghreb (Paris: Maspero, 1973); English trans­ lation by Ralph Manheim, The History o f the Maghreb (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977). Laroui writes: “Though following in Sahli’s footsteps, I differ from him insofar as I hope to provide not a radically decolonized history but only a ‘reading’ of history. I feel certain that at worst my reading will be no more ideological than that of the colonials.” Manheim, P- 475. J. Berque: “To historicize the present is, therefore, to dynamicize the past of yesterday and of the day before. This past one should of course recon­ struct as long as we want it to be a bearer of the present and the future. This does not by the way imply making the past lie or deforming it, but scrutiniz­ ing its potentialities, its quasi-imperceptible features that precisely announce what we are or, rather, what we are becoming. History, thus understood, is not so much that what has preceded than what is in us that takes us where we will be.” Le Maghreb entre les deux guerres, second edition (Paris: Seuil, 1969), p. 473. 76. In modem Arab historiography as well. See Y. M. Choueiri, “The Panacea of Historicism: Abdallah Laroui and Moroccos Cultural Retarda­ tion,” in Arab History and the Nation-State (New York: Roudedge, 1989), pp. 165-88. 77. See Laroui s semi-autobiography, Awrâq (Casablanca: 1989). 78. Laroui, The History o f the Maghreb, p. 82. 79. Ibid. 80. E. Demongeot, “Le chameau et l’Afrique du Nord romaine,” in Annales E.S.C., March-April, 1960, no. 2, pp. 209-47. 81. Ibid., p. 87. 82. Talbi devotes two articles to the legend of the Kahina: “Un nouveau fragment de l’histoire de l’Occident musulman (62-196/682-812). L’épopée de la Kahina,” in Cahiers de la Tunisie, no. 73, 1971, pp. 19-52; “Kahina,” in EI2, vol. IV, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1986), pp. 422-23. He also devotes an article to Kusayla and another to Hassân: “Hassân b. al-Nu'man” art. in EI2, vol. Ill, pp. 270-71; “Kusayla,” art. in EI2, vol. V, p. 518. 83. Talbi, “L’épopée de la Kahina,” and “Kahina.” 84. M. Talbi, “Le Christianisme Maghrébin,” in Conversion and Continuity (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1990), pp. 313-51. 85. Talbi, “Kusayla” in EI2, vol. V, p. 518. 86. Jugurtha was the grandson of Masinissa. Though a son o f a concubine, he was able, by his lively intelligence and great courage, to inherit Numidia together with his uncle’s sons. But Jugurtha was not conent with his part; he annexed the whole of Numidia in 116 B.c. Rome, hostile to his efforts, en­ gaged in a long and onerous war against him (111-104 B.c.). Betrayed by his friend Bacchus, Jugurtha was arrested and transfered to Rome where he was killed in jail. Long after his death, Jugurtha remained very popular in Numidia. Today, he is a historical hero in North Africa.

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87. M. Talbi, L’émirat Aghlabide (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1966), p. 595. 88. Ibid., p. 31. 89. One can, for example, find Laroui’s hypothesis even in the latest French publication about the period of the conquest. See Y. Lacoste, “De l’antiquité à la colonisation, une histoire mouvementée,” in L’E tat du Maghreb, edited by Camille and Yves Lacoste (Paris: La Découverte, 1991), pp. 38-47. 90. Kitâb al-Adouani, French translation by L. Féraud (Constantine: L. Arnolet, 1868). 91. E. Masqueray, “Traditions de l’Aurès,” in Bulletin de Correspondance Africaine, fourth year, 1885. 92. Kitâb El Adottani, p. 149. 93. Ibid., p. 152. 94. Ibid., p. 153. 95. E. Gautier, “A travers le Sahara Français,” in La Géographie, 1907, vol. I, pp. 26-27. 96. Masqueray, “Traditions de l’Aurès,” p. 80. 97. Ibid. 98. Literally “eulogist”; he is always called maddâh al-nabî, eulogist of the Prophet. His stories are not, however, concerned with the Prophets life. The maddâh often interrupts his narratives to collect money while repeating, and making his audience repeat, the salât 'alâ al-nabî (“God’s blessings of the Prophet”). See Abdelmajid Hannoum, “The Storyteller,” in Mediterraneans, no. 11, 1999, pp. 189-94. 99. S. Ben Cheneb, “La chanson arabe et les chansonniers musulmans d’Algérie,” in Informations Algériennes, nos. 58-59, July 15-August 1, 1941, p. 1168. 100. Ibid., p. 1169. 101. D. Cazès, Essai sur l ’histoire des Israélites de Tunisie, pp. 79-84. 102. Véhel, “La belle Kahena,” see above, pp. 95-97. 103. N. Slouschz, “La race de la Kahina,” see above, pp. 76-78. 104. Another example can be found in sixteenth-century Morocco, when Muslims and Jews were unified against the Christians of Europe. For the Jews, the European Christians were a symbol of forced conversion. L. Valensi, Fables de la mémoire (Paris: Seuil, 1992), pp. 107-17. 105. Collected and cited by J. Dakhlia, L’o ubli de la cité (Paris: La Découverte, 1990), p. 64. 106. Hence the North African saying, khirak yaghlab 'alâ sharru (“your good wins over his evil”). 107. P. Nora, “La mémoire collective,” in La nouvelle histoire (Paris: 1978), pp. 398-401. 108. Always in the context of the Algerian crisis. Samir Nair, a political scientist, specialist in emigration, while discussing the present uneasy relation between Algeria and France, and referring to the tragic episode of colonial­ ism, irritated some of his French readers by his reference to the expropriation

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o f the land, and the obliteration o f Arabo-Islamic aspects o f Algéria. Le Monde, November 2, 1994. A reader responded to him angrily: “Does the history o f this country begin in 1830? Ten centuries earlier, did not the invasions o f the Arabs take over lands? And by what right, if it was not by the right o f the strongest?” Le Monde, November 12, 1994. 109. Lahmek Husayn, for example, feels himself to be “plus proche de Saint Augustin que de Sidi Okba.” Considering what he calls “Berberie” (thus avoiding calling Algeria by its Arabic name) a part of the West and not of the Orient, he gratefully praises the French colonial historians who, “thanks to the strength of their intelligence, stayed on the sidelines, and have clearly seen and kept their impartiality and their intellectual serenity.” Lettres algériennes (Paris: Jouve & Cie, 1931), pp. 29, 179-80. 110. Camille and Yves Lacoste, “La revendication culturelle des Berbères de Grande Kabylie,” in Le Monde Diplomatique, December 1980, pp. 3 4 35. 111. S. Chaker, “L’affirmation identitaire Berbère à partir de 1900," in Revue de l ’Occident Musulman et de ¡a Mediterranée, no. 44, 1987, p. 2. 112. See the one-sided article by A. Ouerdane, “’La crise berberiste’ de 1949, un conflit à plusieurs fices,” op.cit., pp. 35—47. More analytical is the article by O. Carlier, “La production sociale de l’image de soi. Note sur la ’crise berbériste’ de 1949,” Annuaire de l A ’ frique du Nord, vol. XXIII, 1986, pp. 347-71. 113. S. Chaker, “L’affirmation identitaire berbère,” p. 25. 114. The Annales school is the leading historical school in France since its foundation in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. It does not have a dogma, but rather a spirit. Its is known for its disdain o f the history o f events and its defense o f an interdisciplinary approach to the study of history. See, for more details, J. Revel, “Histoire et sciences sociales: Les paradigmes des Annales,” in Annales, E.S.C ., no. 6, November-December 1979, pp. 136-76. 115. The situation is no longer what it was until the sixties, when A. Abdel-Malek criticized French orientalism to focus on the past and neglect the present. See A. Abdel-Malek, “Orientalism in Crisis,” in Diogenes, no. 44, W inter 1963, pp. 102-40. 116. See, for instance, El Moujahid, for Kusayla, March 6, 1968, May 1 and 2, 1977, p. 9: for the Kahina, January 30, 1980. An Algerian shaykh did not appreciate the idea that the name Kahina should be given to children (January 12, 1982, p. 2). Because the Kahina has been used as a symbol of the Berberists, she is no longer a symbol o f patriotism for the rest of the Algerians. In 1984, in an official publication of the government entitled Dhâkirat al-jazâ’ir, the Kahina is not listed among the Algerian heroes o f the past such as Masinissa and Jugurtha. 117. Le Monde, May 2 and 18, 1980. See also S. Chaker, “Le tournant 1980,” in Berbères aujourd'hui (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1989), pp. 35-46.

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118. H . Roberts, “Towards an Understanding o f the Kabyle Question in Contemporary Algeria,” in Maghreb Review, nos. 5-6, vol. 5, September-December 1980, pp. 115-24. 119. See, among others, S. Chaker, Berbères aujourd’h ui. Also H . Roberts, “The Unforeseen Development o f the Kabyle Question in Contemporary Al­ geria,” in Government and Opposition, vol. XVIII, 1982, pp. 312-34. 120. October 1988 was the date o f the collapse o f the single-party govern­ ment in Algeria. A huge protest by young poeple began in Algiers against the rise in the cost o f living and scarcity o f necessary products. It was during this protest that the FIS was imposed as a political force, and that the process o f democratization started. See B. Stora, Histoire de l A ’ lgérie depuis l ’indépendence (Paris: La Découverte, 1994), pp. 80-99. 121. M. Harbi, “Aux racines historiques de la crise,” in Manière de voir, no. 24, November 1994, pp. 33-35. First published in Le Monde Diploma­ tique, May 1994. 122. A person from the region provided me with both the song and the information. A Shawi is someone from the Shawiya region. Mshunshiya, a village in that region, is also known by the French name Balcon de Ghouffi. 123. Jeune Afrique, no. 1726, February 3-9, 1993, p. 77. 124. Jeune Afrique, no. 1715, November 18-24, 1993. 125. S. Chaker, for example, wrote in this context: “Given that Kabylia is more and more isolated and caught between the army and the Islamists, it will probably be forced to develop quite rapidly a specific strategy that could take the form of an autonomous project in a federalist frame.” “Quelques évidences sur la question berbère,” in Confluences Méditerranéennes, no. 11, Summer (Paris: L’Harmattan, 1994), p. 110. 126. A Kabyle political party founded in 1989, secularist and Berberist. The FIS, for these reasons, call it Partie Contre Dieu. Its president, Said Sadi, a physician, has been organizing armed resistance against the FIS since No­ vember 1994, and does not believe in any reconciliation with them, calling them “Fasciste Intégriste Sanguinaire.” 127. C. L. Simon, “Les Kabyles se mobilisent contre le pouvoir et le FIS” in Le Monde, September 23, 1994. 128. A. Djebar, Femmes d A ’ lger dans leur appartement (Paris: Ed. des Femmes, 1970), p. 180. 129. Z. Daoud, Féminisme et politique au Maghreb (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1993), pp. 133-34, and n. 4 on p. 357. 130. Kateb Yacine, “‘C ’est Africain qu’il faut se dire’ Entretien avecTassadit Yacine, 1987,” in Le poète comme un boxeur (Paris: Seuil, 1994). First pub­ lished in Awal. Cahiers d ’Etudes Berbères, no. 9, 1992. 131. Z. Ounissi, “Al-Mar’ah 'abra târîkh al-jazâ’ir,” in Djazairiya, May 4, 1970, pp. 8-12. 132. Ibid., p. 12. 133. Ibid.

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134. Ibid. 135. Sec Z. Douad, Féminisme, especially pp. 157-90. 136. The Algerian Salafls provided both the content and the expression for the ideology of the Algerian nation as symbolized by the scene on April 26, 1956, in Cairo, of Madanî serving as an interpreter to Ferhat Abbas, at a press conference during which Ferhat Abbas publicly expressed his adherence to the FLN. See Jean Lacouture, Cinq hommes et la France (Paris: Seuil, 1961), p. 316. 137. A well-known theme in North African literature is the déchirement (inner conflict), even in Laroui’s novels; see especially his early ones, Al-Ghurba and Al-Yatim. 138. In Algeria, especially in universities, the Berberists are very active, and obtained the founding of a Berber language and culture department in the university of Tizi-Ouzou. In France, they control a number of journals and magazines, as well as cultural centers intended to propagate Berber culture among the Berber community.

Chapter 5 ▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼

Literature and H istory

Arabs consider themselves to be the people o f târîkh.1 W hen, at the turn o f the twentieth century, Arab historians undertook to write their own history, they undoubtedly felt that they had long ago mastered the disci­ pline. It was with confidence, then, that they fought the French in a field that they thought was theirs. T he French, nevertheless, did not use only history in their effort to subjugate the past o f N orth Africa; they also used, as we have previously seen, literature— plays and novels— that reached a larger public. Early on, the Arab historians felt the need to use literary forms that were not known in the Arabic tradition,2 although they were not necessarily trained to use these forms. An attem pt to use Western forms o f literature in the service o f history was thought to be worthwhile. T he need was felt, and the attem pt was made, precisely where the historical consciousness first emerged— in the circle o f the Algerian Salafi movement. As early as 1931, Bachir Ibrahimi wrote a novel about the Kahina, entitled Riwâyat kâhinat awrâs, which has been lost.3 Madanî, in 1948, wrote a play about Hannibal, to propagate the myth o f Carthage that the Salafi opposed to the colonial myth o f Rome.4 Nonetheless, fiction was not developed among the Salafi, but rather by the Frenchified elite, who attended French schools and were well versed in the French intellectual tradition. After a beginning in ethnographic litera­ ture, they turned to the past, and especially the pre-Islamic past, as a source o f their inspiration. It is especially among them that we find liter­ ary work— plays and fiction— about N orth African heroes, especially the Kahina and Jugurtha.5

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In this chapter, the aim is to explore this literature in order to see how the legend o f the Kahina has inspired N orth African writers, and how they have used these two opposite narrative traditions about the Kahina— the French colonial one and the Salafi one. Here again, the chief goal is to examine the myths that N orth African literature contains. The Kahina in Colonial N orth African Literature A Monotheist Woman or the Salafí Kahina By the early 1950s enough time had passed for the French educational system to produce a thoroughly Frenchified elite in Algeria, especially in Kabylia where the effort o f Frenchification was great.6 A generation o f Algerian writers emerged that moved beyond the ethnographic literature— written in imitation o f French fiction and addressed to a French public— to a more engaged literature dealing w ith the issues o f colonization and the war o f liberation.7 It is during this period that we find a play about the Kahina8 presented to the public in February 1954. It was considered as un événement théâtral? O nly the seventh scene o f the second act, translated from Arabic into French by the author himself, is available, along with a comment by Driss Aounner. In the absence o f the rest o f the play, I will briefly examine this scene, which presents a confrontation between the Kahina and the chiefs o f many Berber tribes on one hand, and the prisoner Khâlid on the other. In this scene the Kahina has already defeated Hassân, and taken many prisoners. Those prisoners are not freed, but tortured so the Kahina can extract information about Hassâns army. Khalid, in an act o f defiance, reveals to her the strength o f the Arab army, reinforced by the supplies o f the Caliph Marwân (not 'A bd al-Malik). T he Kahina does not know the intention o f the Arabs, and even remains incredulous when Khâlid ex­ plains to her their real motivations. As in the Salafi writings, the Arabs do not seek to gain material benefit, or to subjugate other people, but only to Liberate men from the servitude of other men to serve only God, the only Lord of the Universe.10 Khâlid continues: O ur mission, Princess, is the one of Islam, it is to submit people to God and His justice, and not to the Arabs and their law.11

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A few years later, in 1957, another play was published about the Kahina. It was written in French by Ahmed Djelloul.12 Here, the Kahina is neither pagan nor Jewish, but professes Abrahamic monotheism. Kusayla is her son and is killed in a duel by Zuhayr b. Qays, in the battle against the Arabs. The Kahina is a queen o f the Aurès, assisted by a number o f Berber chiefs, and has as a confidant her servant Tsaala. Even though she defeated Hassan in the batde o f Baghya, she knows that the danger is not really far away, but close enough to re-emerge at any moment. Tsaala suggests that she should fight by using love. The Kahina agrees. Tsaala is supposed to seduce Khâlid, and use him in some deceitful ways against the Arabs. Tsaala, however, falls into her own trap: she herself hills in love with Khâlid and tries hard to express her feelings to him. Khâlid ignores her. Finally, when Khâlid fails to respond, she despairs o f serving him and again de­ votes herself wholeheartedly to the Kahina. W hen Hassân nears the Aurès, the Kahina decides to destroy the veg­ etation, because she thinks that the Arabs have come only for the wealth o f the country. Many people are hurt by this scorched-earth policy and they join the Arabs. As a result, only the Berbers remain, and their num ­ bers are too small to defend their country. T he Kahina, determined as ever, sees the writing on the wall and fears that her sons will be subjugated and humiliated by the Arabs. She decides to execute them first. In this play, too, the Kahina fails to understand the Arabs. She thinks that they have come to dominate and mistreat the Berbers. But Khâlid explains their real intentions. He then offers to take her sons to Hassân. She con­ sents, but nonetheless her will to continue the fight remains unshakable. She joins the battle and dies. The Berbers, however, convert, and shout enthusiastically: God is the most glorious! God is the most Glorious!13 This play also echoes the Salafi discourse that was predominant at the time: The Kahina does not understand the Arabs; they are thought to be like any other conqueror; and she is an Algerian heroine, who represents the fight not against the Arabs, but against the invader. In some ways, the Kahina is a Muslim. As in M ilis account, the Kahina is appropriated for Islam, but to make her acceptable to the Algerians she is not presented as a pagan, Jew, or a Christian but as a follower o f Abrahamic religion. In­ deed, the Muslims believe themselves to be the heir o f the Abrahamic religion, which most o f the pre-Islamic Arab popular heroes profess. In this play, the Arabs are not conquerors, they simply fulfill their religious duty— bringing Islam to other people. The Berbers are coura­

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geous and accept the message gratefully, w ithout being forced. O nce Islam shines on their country, life is no longer the same: Everything shines with new light! The one o f Faith and o f Islam.14 W riting during the war o f Algerian liberation, the author uses the leg­ end o f the Kahina not only to inspire Berber resistance to the French but also as a means o f fusing the two populations— Arab and Berber. D uring the colonial period, the French played on the division and used it to weaken Algerian society. At the same time, the author presents Islam not as an ideology o f the winners imposed on the losers but as a tool o f unification that enhances the life o f the Algerians. The Kahina in Post-Colonial North African Literature The Salafi Kahina In the period immediately following independence the legend o f the Kahina was used by N orth African writers to deal with the problems o f decolonization. In Algeria, in 1963, just a year after independence, a play about the Kahina by M uhammad W âdih was published in Arabic, and it is dedi­ cated to all those who had struggled for independence.15 In this play, too, the Kahina is a monotheist, but one does not know which form o f monotheism she professes. She is also a sorcerer, able to read the future, reveal secrets, and bewitch people. H er supernatural power is drawn from a well, called the Kahina. The Kahina not only has two sons— Yaghûr and Gharta— but also a daughter—Antinya. She has already defeated Hassân and captured Khâlid who is now her adopted son. A Rûmî general by the name o f Siqirdid is in the service o f the Kahina. However, he secretly hates Khâlid and wants to kill him in order to take away Antinya, who is already in love with Khâlid. From the start, the Kahina is isolated. Khâlid and her sons are in touch with Hassân: they inform him that most o f the Berbers have embraced Islam and they express their hope that the Kahina will follow suit. Siqirdid, who is supposedly a faithful general o f the Kahina, in reality serves the Byzantine Emperor and keeps him informed about the Berbers. Siqirdid plans to subdue the country by first getting rid o f the Arabs with the help o f the Berbers themselves.

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T he Kahina, however, knows all the secrets o f these intrigues. Before the final clash with Hassân, the Kahina mercilessly executes Siqirdîd. Asked by her sons to accept a peace treaty with the Arabs, she refuses categori­ cally, and instead, as a declaration o f war, orders the destruction o f the land. In the battlefield, to get rid o f the Rum, she places them in the front line where they serve as cannon fodder. All the Rûm perish. Then, a brief, m inor clash takes place between the Arabs and the Berbers, a clash imme­ diately followed by a peace treaty. In the meantime, the Kahina asks Khâlid to take her sons to Hassân, and to marry her daughter. In the post-colonial period, the N orth Africans, and the Algerians in particular, as in the case o f W âdih, have yet to heal the divisions left by the French. French colonial mythology, as we have seen, seriously influ­ enced the Maghribi mythology, and the task o f demolishing the French version, and furthermore, o f creating in its place a nationalist mythology, is as urgent as ever. Time had played in favor o f the colonial mythology: the more tim e passed, the more forcibly this mythology impregnated Maghribi societies. W âdih’s account o f the Kahina is but an allegory for modern Algeria’s relation with the French, who appear here in the guise o f the Rûm. In this play, as in Salafi writings, Arabs and Berbers share the same origin. The Arabs in the Maghrib were actually at home, they realized, thanks to Is­ lam, the union with their brothers. The opposition is rather between Berbers and Arabs on one hand, and the Rûm on the other hand. The R ûm ,16 that is, the French, like the Berbers and dislike the Arabs. Their love and their hatred are both dictated by their self-interest. Like Siqirdîd, the French intend to isolate the Berbers, and then dominate them. The author puts it clearly: “The love o f the Rûm for the Berbers is a satanic love.” The Amazigh Kahina The legend was not, however, used only by nationalist writers to express a Salafi-oriented mythology. O ther writers, known as anti-colonialists, used the same legend against both French colonialism and Islamist ideology. Kateb Yacine, who was also inspired by the legend o f the Kahina, is be­ yond a doubt the most remarkable figure o f French N orth African litera­ ture.17 His use o f French, o f which he is an indisputable master, is in itself significant. French, in Kateb Yacine’s opinion, is “booty o f war” and a weapon by which he fights the French. “I write in French to tell the French that I am not French.”18 His use o f French therefore is not simply

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a symptom o f alienation, but also a highly effective means o f doing ideo­ logical battle with the French. Kateb Yacine, like Jean Amrouche,19 integrates the French colonial my­ thology into his own vision and subverts it. Kateb Yacine, however, does not go as far as the pre-lslamic past; his historical references, in his Nedjma™ are from the Islamic past, the near past, and the present.21 Like the French, Kateb maintains that Algeria has not been a nation (or not yet): We are not a nation, not yet, you know that: we are only deci­ mated tribes.22 Q uite explicit is the idea that Algeria will be a nation, because it is able to become one. In effect, Algeria was about to constitute a nation in the near past with 'A bd al-Qâdir: A man o f the pen and the sword, the only chief capable o f uniting the tribes into a nation, if the French had not come and cut short his efforts that were initially directed against the Turks.23 In other words, contrary to what the French maintain, Algeria does not need help to become a nation; it simply needs to be left alone. Nevertheless the French conquest, though bad, can be o f great advan­ tage to the Algerians: The conquest was a necessary evil, a painful graft promising growth for the nations tree slashed by the foreign axe; like the Turks, the Romans and the Arabs, the French could only take root here, hostages of the fatherland-in-gestation whose favors they quarreled over.24 Kateb believes in a multiethnic, diverse Algeria, a diversity that can make it strong and rich. Unlike the Salafis and the French, for instance, who, each in their own way, want to make Algeria a single unit in origin as well as in culture, Kateb Yacine celebrates its diversity. Nedjma, the heroine o f his novel, the symbol o f Algeria, is a daughter o f a Keblouti and a French Jew. Keblout, the ancestor o f the tribe, himself came from elsewhere. His origins are murky. Yacine tells us that some maintain that he came from the Middle East, through Spain and Morocco. “But other details might suggest a different route.”23 Indeed, nothing, in the view o f Yacine, is certain about the origin o f Algeria, except its diversity.

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The character o f the Kahina fascinates Kateb Yacine, and one can draw a parallel between Nedjma and the Kahina. The Kahina symbolizes Berber Algeria, “Amazigh,”26 a Berber country, not subjugated, not alienated, free and willing to fight to keep its freedom. Nedjma is the new Algeria, multiethnic, successively dominated by the Arabs, the Turks, and the French. Nedjma, in other words, is the humiliated Kahina. Kateb Yacine, the poet, wonders who changed it: Tell us: W ho delivers Algiers to the Swell W ho has exposed the front face o f the shoe-shiners To the effeminate gangsters o f Chicago W ho has transformed into maids The descendants o f the Kahina?27 After independence, N orth African writers no longer fought a battle that they had already won. The French were gone, and N orth African societies faced a new task: to liberate themselves from the colonial experi­ ence, and find a way in the modern world. Kateb Yacine, who wrote exclusively in French in the colonial period, turned after independence to write mainly plays, not in literary Arabic, but in Algerian dialect, considered by him as more “Algerian” than literary Arabic. Arabic is also the language o f an old domination. Kabyle, Frenchified, and feminist, Kateb Yacine was far from being satisfied with an Arabo-Islamic Algeria. Amazigh was not taken into ac­ count in the building o f the new Algerian society, nor was an acceptable place given to women, whose role in the war o f liberation was equal to that o f men. In 1982, that is, after the “Berber Spring” and the increase in Islamic militancy, Kateb published his play about the Kahina, a play which had already been presented in Algerian dialect to the public in Paris in Sep­ tember 1975.28 In this play, the Kahina is named Dihya. From the outset, two peasants talk about the fire in the “free land o f Amazigh!”29 The two peasants are puzzled, worried; they do not know where to go in case the whole land burns. Dihya enters, and tells the peasants that only the harvest is lost; the land is still theirs. Being peasants, and not warriors, they can not under­ stand the Kahinas policy. All they care about is “bread.” They even think that the Arabs, monotheists, may be right. Dihya knows who the Arabs are, and why they come pretending to be “men o f G od”:

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All these religions that are the same Serve these kings. They want to take away our country from us The best lands are not enough for them They also want the soul and the spirit o f our people To better enslave us they talk to us about one G od.30 She continues: This G od that they impose on us From so far by weaponry Is only the veil o f conquest T he O nly God that we know We can see it and touch it I can kiss it in front o f you It is the lively land, the land that makes us live T he free land o f Amazigh.31 The Arabs are hypocrites. As for the Berbers, they talk about G od and his Prophet, but to each other they talk about beautiful Berber women, highly expensive in the East.32 They call the population “Berbers” follow­ ing the Romans who called them “barbarians.” They call Dihya the Kahina— that is, the sorceress. T he Kahina, however, sees through them , regarding them as the real barbarians: The barbarians are the aggressors There is no Kahina, no Berbers here It is we that in this country fight barbarism Goodbye, merchants o f slaves I will leave you history In the heart o f my children I will leave you Amazigh In the heart o f Algeria.33 Dihya dies on the battlefield, and the play ends with the voice o f the chorus o f peasants: The heart that cries I want to bum it, The cause o f the ancestors Is always stronger Night falls on the traitorous.34

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Algeria’s heart is Amazigh. The Arabs, no less invaders than the Ro­ mans, bring an ideology not o f tolerance but o f force and hegemony. The Arabs want only to subjugate Dihya to their will, to take the “land” as well as the “soul” o f Algeria.35 In other words, what the Salafis, in modern times, seek is to appropriate Algeria, to make it Arab and to erase its Amazigh essence. Kateb’s myth o f a free, Berber Algeria is o f course intended to oppose the Arabo-Islamic myth o f an Arab Algeria. Kateb’s myth is opposed actu­ ally to both that o f the FLN, who excluded the Berber component o f Algerian society, and the Islamists, who are willing to impose their ideology by force. Kateb fights both furiously: An Algeria that is Arab and Islamic is an Algeria against itself, it is an Algeria alien to itself. It is an Algeria imposed by weaponry, for Islam does not happen by candies and roses. It happens by crush­ ing, by violence, by scorn, by hatred, by the worst abjection that a people can bear.36 Kateb does not prom ulgate only the Berberist mythology, b u t also the fem inist one. Before the Arab conquest, a w om an ruled Algeria. It is the Arabs who see women as objects to be taken, sold, and bought; it is the Arabs who are responsible for the degradation o f women in Algeria. In this play, Kateb articulates the myths o f the Amazigh and the femi­ nist Algeria that he opposes to the Arabo-Islamic vision. These myths justify Berber and feminist aspirations.

A Communist Kahina The legend o f the Kahina was used, as we have seen, by many different ideologies, but thus far, we have not seen its use by one o f the most important ideologies o f the twentieth century, one which marked so deeply both Western and non-Western societies— Communism. Communism, because o f its claim o f fighting injustice and exploita­ tion, quickly reached N orth Africa. In the beginning, French Com m u­ nism was active in N orth Africa, propagating its ideology among the intelligentsia.37 Later, N orth Africans themselves created their own Com ­ munist parties.38 It is during this period after independence that we find a novel that uses the legend o f the Kahina to perpetuate a communist myth. The novel is by M ohammed Kayr-Eddine, a Moroccan who lives in France.39

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Agadir is not another retelling o f the Kahina story but, rather, a novel, set in modern times, in which the Kahina appears. The narrator is an employee o f the government, sent on a mission to Agadir, the Moroccan city that was destroyed by an earthquake, to make inquiries and redress the situation. O nce there, he is ordered to assist in the exodus o f the population. In his apartment, he talks with a stranger who pretends to be his ancestor and a special envoy o f “her Majesty the Kahina.” T he narrator is incredulous; he does not know who the Kahina is. She suddenly ap­ pears, and introduces herself: I am the Kahina. The Berber. The Roumis call me the Snake Queen of Barbarie. But I am a communist, and it is true, like the snake.40 She criticizes and explains how to remedy the situation: Your monarchies are a hundred o f times forbidden. Your dances o f eclipses Your interruptions in the gallop o f blood, your crimes, your faults without basilisks, without absinthe, without real feasts T he people oppressed by famine, molested by intangible stars W andering in the borders o f nothingness Your proxy soldiers, your bistros, your corrupters Woke us up by their enormous uproar We know well your role. You should then Stop fighting for a harmful cause. Make the people come here. We will inculcate in them our truth and our anxiety.41 She then orders the killing o f the king. Whereas the crowd is enthusias­ tic, the narrator, an officer o f the government, remains resistant to her call. He angrily denies any kinship with her, and worst o f all, he chases her and the rest o f the crowd from his place. T he Kahina leaves tearfully, bu t reminds him again that she is a Com m unist, and is able to topple the kingdom: I am leaving But do not forget that I can mat this reign I am a communist. May the time o f the bullet say it to the battles! I am a communist O h Time do you know this?42

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After her departure, another historical character, Yusuf b. Tâchfîn,43 appears. He too is not happy about the situation o f the country that he once ruled. He does not like the Kahina, because she is “a shrew under­ mining the faith o f man.”44 But like her, he complains about the degrad­ ing situation, and expresses his animosity toward the king: My people, beaten down flock of birds of prey at the hands of seasoned jokers. My people crouch down in fables and warm them­ selves with words that wont lay omelet eggs. My people trans­ gressed against. My people owe nothing to the past and crowd into daily language. My people, enslaved. My people, inept, their king wears neither the alligators, nor the aka’s, nor the iguanas name, fascist, impenetrable. My people sold out for a ton of joy. This reign is a frenetic neurosis.4’ Both heroes, the Kahina and Yûsuf b. Tâchfîn, are against the present situation in Morocco, when after the advent o f the new king, “Everything has fallen down.”46 The two heroes are fundamentally different. The Kahina is a Communist, believing only in a radical change in the situation— that is, sweeping away the monarchy. In other terms, she does not have a religion, though she has a political program. Yûsuf, on the other hand, is opposed to the Kahina, not so much to her ultimate goal as to her lack o f belief. Both are Berbers, but one is religious, and the other is not; one is Berberophile, if not Berberist, the other is not. If anything, the two char­ acters, both representing Morocco— one its pre-Islamic past, the other its Islamic past— are opposed to the political situation and seek the destruc­ tion o f the monarchy. In Khayr-Eddine's novel, the past is actualized in the present: Not to keep anything from the p a st. . . p a st. . . bad, unless it is a memory, if it is possible, but a reinvented past with colors of new vision, and thus healthy and new.47 As a Communist, the Kahina expresses the myth o f liberating men from the tyranny o f the feudal regime.48 The opposition between the Kahina and Yûsuf reflects the political situation in Morocco after independence. The Moroccan Communists were forced by the social situation to take into account Islam and tradition. W hile the Moroccan Communists were, paradoxically, trying to integrate the religious element into their ideology, other political forces, and especially the Istiqlâl, were accusing them o f atheism.49 Hence the ideological conflict, in this novel, between the Kahina and Yûsuf.

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Loving the Foteigner In the work by Nabil Farès, La mémoire de l'absent, which is a play w ithin a novel, the Kahina stands trial. This novel contains an interesting account o f the Kahina.50 She is both a Berber queen, resisting the inva­ sion o f the Hijazi tribes, and a defeated ruler, responsible for the disinte­ gration o f the country, and waiting for judgment. In this work, the actors have a double status: in the present they play roles different from those o f the past. T he Kahina, a queen in the past, is a suspect in the present. T he storyteller also has his double in the past; he was a shepherd named Ameksa. The audience, listening to the story in the present, was in the past the victim o f the actions o f the Kahina. Space and time are not separated, but they are an indistinct unity. The events are narrated and seen at the same time, by actors who live in the past as well as in the present. T he place from which the narrator tells the story o f the Kahina is also the scene o f action, that is, the very place where the events are occurring. In this account, the Kahina is betrayed by the tribes who were supposed to help her fight the enemy. She is accused o f setting the country ablaze, killing her husband, exiling her sons, and assassinating her lover. Her major crime, however, is her love for a foreigner, Khaled, a Bedouin. By uniting with him, the Kahina divided the country. The territory has become multiple. Oh Unity. The woman, the Guard of the place eluded the vigilance of the Gods: The Kahina makes love with the Foreigner, the territory has become multiple, at once in the love of the Kahina.51 The Kahina responds selectively to the accusations, ignoring those re­ garding her love o f the Bedouin and justifying her burning o f the land and dividing the country. O ne would conclude that for her, love is not a crime. She accuses men o f lacking confidence in her justice and betraying her: I have burned T he country O f the proud Karouan, As one Burns

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T he right O f ones own heart But man D id not Believe In the justice O f woman, And, Treachery O f the blind, Has rushed To pay tribute To the power O f the Bedouin.52 The audience decides that the Kahina is guilty and pronounces the verdict: You are not worthy o f being among the people o f the audience. You will walk around the circle, around the place, around plea­ sures, w ithout reaching the center, like us. . . . Yes. . . . Like us.53 In this play one can easily recognize the Judeo-Christian myth o f the story o f Solomon. By marrying foreign women, Solomon caused the anger o f God, and the downfall o f the kingdom.54 In a similar manner in this account, the central theme is the disintegration o f the country through union with a foreigner, a theme that was less im portant in some o f the colonial novels. O n e understands th at the country, through the affair o f the Kahina w ith the Bedouin, became m ultiethnic again. T h a t is to say, the coun­ try was already m ultiethnic before this union, b u t its m ultiethnicity was ended by unification. It should be noted th at the first unity, bro­ ken by the union w ith the Bedouin, th at is, the Arab, was achieved w ith the olive-tree, a symbol o f the Roman who first introduced it to N o rth Africa, a symbol o f both peace and prosperity. T he Kahina gave up the olive-tree for the “harsh skin o f the Bedouin”55; in o ther words she renounced the peace and prosperity o f her union w ith the Rom an for chaos w ith the Bedouin. Since Ibn K haldûn, the Bedouin has been identified w ith disorder, anarchy, and ruin. In N orth Africa today, people

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use this saying, idha'urribat khuribat (“if Arabized, it is ruined”), to denigrate the Arabs in general. Nabil Rués provides a myth o f the origin o f N orth Africa that focuses on the role o f the Berbers. This author sees a basic divide not between Berbers and Romans but between Berbers and Arabs. The vision o f Farès contrasts sharply with the vision o f the Salafi writers, who maintain that Arabs and Berbers shared the same origin and were unified by Islam. For his part, Farès presents an account in which it is the advent o f Islam itself that split the Berber people. In addition, it destroyed the independent Berber kingdom, which Farès, a Berber nationalist, seems to extol. As a result o f this destruction, N orth Africa became a backwater, the Western­ most periphery o f the wider Arab-Islamic world. N orth Africa, one would assume, is not Arab, but Berber. It became "Arab” only when the Arabs invaded it. The center o f Arabism is in the East; N orth Africa is only on the edges o f this world. By accepting the Arab and unifying with him, N orth Africa became marginal. The Berberists believe that Arabism is alien to N orth Africa. Curiously enough, this myth is not only an object o f Berberist belief, but it has also been widely shared, even by the Arabs o f the East.56 An Enemy of Islam T he Salafi mythology is widely diffused in the Maghribi societies. T he legend o f the Kahina still serves to promote it. As recently as 1990, a play was published about the Kahina.57 T he play, entitled La K ahina, by Abdelmajid Laroui is not as complicated as the plays by Kayr-Eddine and Nabil Farès. Indeed the author is a late convert to literature, and his play plainly expresses the Salafi mythology. In this play the Kahina is a m other o f three children— two sons and a daughter, Adarion, Céline, and Abdas. Each o f them was born o f an assas­ sinated father. Except for the oldest son— Adarion— the childrens rela­ tions with their mother, the Kahina, are rather difficult, cold and sometimes even hostile. The Kahina’s religious heritage is Judeo-Christian, but she does not claim any religion. Instead, she worships the land. As for her tribe, the Jrâwa, they worship Guerza. T he Kahina has already liberated Kusayla from his captivity, and defeated the Arabs in the battle o f Tehouda. Kusayla and the Kahina both rule the country fairly, having as a capital Qayrawân. The inhabitants o f Qayrawân, whether Arabs or Berbers, freely practice Islam. Kusayla himself has been a convert since his first encounter with

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the Arabs during the expedition o f Dinar. Islam is continuously propa­ gated, and the believers do not hide their proselytism. In the mosques, the Arabs teach the sciences. Céline, the Kahinas daughter, already a pious Muslim, has been an assiduous student. Abdas, the second son, has not converted yet, but he is a sympathizer. Kusayla himself considers some reconciliation with the Arabs, but the Kahina is wholeheartedly opposed to any negotiation with them. Kusayla and the Kahina are in love and they seem to live happily. But the Kahina knows that her people do not like her ostentatious affair with Kusayla. In any event, the couples happiness does not last. The Arabs come back again. Both the Kahina and Kusayla move to Mems to counter­ attack. During the batde, Kusayla is killed, and the Kahina retreats to the Aurès with her Berber tribes. Khâlid is captured and taken to the Aurès. In the Aurès, both the Kahina and her daughter instantly fall in love with Khâlid. Khâlid soon flees from his captivity with the help o f some Berber Muslims. Though his stay in the Aurès is very brief, Khalid is already as much in love with Céline as she is with him. The Kahinas life is no longer peaceful. She already knows that an­ other Arab general, by the name o f Hassân, is preparing to attack her. She devotes all her time to galvanizing the Berbers, but her task is ex­ tremely difficult because most o f the Berbers are now Muslims. The Kahina is determined, however, to win this battle at all costs, so she or­ ders the destruction o f the land. In so doing, she increases the anger o f the Berbers. In spite o f the Kahina’s problems, she defeats Hassân in Baghya and captures Khâlid again. Hassân makes exactly the same mistake that caused 'U q b a to lose his life. W hile moving ahead toward the Aurès, he does not secure his rear. He is attacked from a direction he does no t expect. The Kahina now is at the zenith o f her glory. But she loves Khâlid passionately, even blindly. She devotes all her time to him, without notic­ ing the intense anger o f her family and her subjects. W hen Hassân comes back, the Berbers are not willing to fight. Even the Kahinas faithful chiefs have been converted to Islam. But the Kahina is again determined to fight, this time for her love o f Khâlid, not her love o f the land. Khâlid, a noble Muslim, is repulsed by the Kahina and is faithful to Céline, whose name is now Hannah. At this point, the Kahina finds ou t about Khâlid and H annah’s af­ fair. As soon as she knows, she stabs and kills Khâlid. H annah, desper-

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ate, kills herself. Soon, Hassân enters the scene. T he Kahina tries de­ ceitfully to kill him , bu t in vain. H aving refused H assans offer o f Islam, she is killed by him . H er head is sent, as prom ised, to the Caliph. This play, written recently in the Tunisian context, still retains some colonial influences, in spite o f its Salafi orientation. For instance, the Berbers have never constituted a nation because o f their eternal divisions. Further­ more, the Berber is not capable o f achieving any work o f civilization, because o f his mentality: Is she [the Kahina] not the reflection of her people whose inclina­ tion to well-being and pleasures is more accentuated in them than the one that takes to effort and deprivation, which are the causes of progress and greatness?'’8 Left by himself, the Berber is subversive, unable to progress, and he is in need o f a facilitator to help him become civilized. His opposite in this play is not, however, Western civilization as it is in the colonial writing, but Islam as it is in the Salafi writing. Islam changes the “nature” o f the Berber; it elevates him. It is thanks to Islam, in the authors opinion, that the Berbers constitute a nation and participate in Islamic civilization, which offers the Berbers An appealing dogma and a deep faith that have provided to them tranquility o f the soul, have explained to them the raison d’etre and have indicated to them the road to wisdom and salvation.89 It is clear that in this account the image o f the Berber is not particu­ larly positive. This is because in Tunisia Berberism is not an issue given the small percentage o f Berbers in the population. As a result, the author, not aware o f the importance o f the issue, does not question his vision o f the Berbers, a vision which he most probably received from the French colonial writings. In this play the Kahina, in spite o f the effort o f the author, is not a heroine. She is an enemy o f Islam in a land o f Muslims. As in the Tunisian oral tradition, she is an evil presence in a land o f Islam. T he play also contains the counter-m ythology we have seen in the Salafi writing. But given that in the post-colonial situation the battle is no longer against the presence o f the French, there is no opposition

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between the Romans and the Arabs. The Romans do not appear; only the Arabs are portrayed as builders, enlightened, and creating a great civilization. Indeed, this play is much like the apologetic literature which flourished during the N ahda (Arab Renaissance) when the Ar­ abs, aware o f their weakness, hum iliated by foreign occupation and wishing to overcome it, appealed to the past. Thus the author propa­ gates the Salaft message. It is this same message th at one also finds in Tahar W attar s novel, A l-lâz: A l-'ish q wa al-m aw t f i al-zam an alharâshi.60 Tahar W attar does not directly tell the story o f the Kahina. Instead, he uses it in his portrayal o f one o f his characters, M ustapha, an Algerian Islamist student, a fierce foe o f the C om m unists whom he considers atheists, though he knows nothing about Com m unism . M ustapha targets the female students, especially Jamila, whose beauty he thinks attracts followers. W hile preparing to buy acid to throw on Jam ilas face to deform her, he thinks o f her as the Kahina. H e then remembers: “T he Kahina professed Judaism, no, she was a C hristian, an agent o f the Romans. T he Kahina was a sorcerer, Satan inhabited her soul.”61 Tahar W attar shows how the Kahina is used in present Algeria to explain the present. For the conservative M uslim student, she is both an infidel and an agent for infidels. In the m onologue just quoted, the student m entions the Kahina as a Jew and im m edi­ ately corrects himself, like the Algerian student o f comparative litera­ ture quoted above. In any case, M ustapha continues his monologue: “she mobilized the pagans. She bewitched them and mobilized them . She killed many o f them . W hen she was certain o f her defeat and the usefulness o f her magic in the presence o f the strength o f the greatest Name, she began burning gardens, fields, and woods. She thus cre­ ated hatred and despair in the heart o f people”62 M ustapha, carrying two bottles o f cider, reaches the room where Jamila is expecting him, holding an iron chair to throw at him. She bravely faces him , but is saved by al-lâz, a mysterious personage, central in the novel. T hus ends the struggle between the conservative Muslim students and their coun­ terparts that work for an agricultural revolution. By the end o f the novel, Jamila knows that al-lâz is “the people, and that the people are the future, and that the belief in the future is the w eaponry o f every m ilitant, man or w om an.”63 Tahar W attar’s use o f the legend is very subtle. He uses the Islamist version in the monologue o f his charac­ ter. However, in doing so, the reader associates the Kahina with Jamila; both have a m eaning that is different from the one that the character conveys. Jamila, like the Kahina, continues the struggle against the

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conservative religious forces. But the Kahina here is not a C om m unist despite the resemblance; her story only allows the novelist to articu­ late the Islamist ideology o f one o f his characters. Like the French colonial literature, N orth African literature in the colo­ nial period was entirely in the service o f historiography. Indeed, fiction played the same role as history; in other words, it perpetuated a mythol­ ogy vital to justifying the struggle for independence. The very few early literary writings about the Kahina articulated the Salafi mythology, and diffused the same myths o f the Semitic origin o f the Berber, the Algerian nation, and the civilizing mission o f Islam. It is not by chance that the two literary works discussed above were both plays. This literary genre in particular flourished in Algeria, and enjoyed con­ siderable success.64 In the post-colonial period, the struggle has changed. The French are no longer present, militarily, in N orth Africa, but a worsened situation o f underdevelopment remains. The Salafis ostensibly continue the struggle against what is left o f the colonial mythology, drawing their credibility, if not their legitimacy, from their struggle against colonialism. In the new era, they are still eager to keep their seat o f privilege and power in governments that increasingly use an Arabo-Islamic ideology to maintain their legitimacy. T he Salafis, however, have nationalistic opponents, who in their turn, seek to remedy the situation, but differently. Berberists and feminists espe­ cially strongly contest the Salafi ideology. For them, the choice that has still to be made is that o f a democratic society. It is only by recognizing its diversity that North Africa will tread the path o f progress. For the Berberists, the Salafi ideology is nothing but a representation o f an Arab hegemony. The Berberists go as far as to compare the Salafis with the French, who denied them their political and cultural rights.65 The legend o f the Kahina reflects this post-colonial situation. In Kateb Yacine the legend o f the Kahina promotes both a Berberist and a feminist mythology. The Kahina, a symbol o f Algeria, is a myth o f an Amazigh Algeria, alive, free, and strong; and at the same time, she promotes the feminist myth o f a just society where women enjoy the same rights as men, including that o f ruling. Indeed, Katebs mythology expresses the need to integrate both Berberists and women, in other words, it asks for a democratic society. Nabil Farès expresses in his turn the same Berberist mythology through the same legend, but differently. In his account, the Kahina, that is Algeria, caused the downfall o f her society, by allowing the other, that is the Arab, to possess her. In so doing so, she relegated Algeria

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to the margins o f Islam rather than allowing it to remain at the center o f its own world. Even the Com m unist myth o f the just man was expressed through the legend o f the Kahina. Kayr-Eddine articulates this Communist myth, in a situation where the Moroccan peasants are oppressed by a feudal monar­ chy, which uses religion to stay in power. The Salafi mythology, however, remains predominant and has its adher­ ents, sometimes, curiously enough, even among authors who may think they are not adherents. Because o f the power o f the apparatuses o f the N orth African states, the N orth African is nourished by this mythology from his childhood, in his house as well as in school. And when someone like Abdelmajid Laroui writes a novel about the Kahina, he simply ex­ presses a Salafi mythology, maybe w ithout being aware o f it. Notes 1. For a while the Arabs used the term târîkh to designate their history writings; this term means dating and implies absolute exactitude. They avoided using the word "history,” which they knew from the Greeks, to designate their târîkh, and used it rather to designate legends (ustûra = history), as other people have only legends not târîkh. A. Laroui, La crise des intellectuels arabes (Paris: Maspero, 1974), The Crisis o f the Arab Intellectuals, translated from French by Diarmid Cammell (Los Angeles: University o f California Press, 1976), p. 15. For târîkh, see H. Gibb, "Târîkh,” in Studies on the Civilization o f Islam (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1962), pp. 108-37. 2. The first Arab novel, Zaynab, by Husayn Haykal, was published in Egypt in 1914. 3. I would like to thank Khawla Talbi Ibrahimi, his granddaughter, to whom I owe this information. If published, as J. Dejeux points out, it would have been the first Arabic Algerian novel. Femmes d'Algérie, p. 109. 4. In this play, Hannibal is a Semite, an Easterner, a Phoenician who, with the help o f the Berbers, fights Rome. He symbolizes the alliance between the N orth Africans and the Easterners as he symbolizes the fight o f the oppressed people against colonialism. While describing Hannibal’s resistence Madanî in reality describes the present situation. He includes a reference to Israel. As in the past, Rome created Yahûda to split the Arabs. T. Madanî, H annibal (Algiers: 1969); First edition 1950. The play was staged first on April 9, 1948, and later 185 times in the Maghrib, accord­ ing to the author. 5. For instance, Jean Amrouche, "L’éternel Jugurtha,” in L'Arc, no. 13, February 1946; Mohammad Sahli, Le message de Jugurtha (Paris: 1969; first edition 1947).

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6. Camille and Yves Lacoste, “La revendication des Berbères de Grande Kabylie,” p. 34. 7. See, among many others, J. Dejeux, Littérature maghrébine de langue française, 2 vols. (Ottawa: Noaman, 1973); Jacqueline Arnaud, La littérature maghrébine de langue française. La cas de Kateb Yacine. 2 vols. (Paris: Publisud, 1986). 8. Abdallah Neldi, “El Kahina” (extrait traduit par l’auteur), in Progrès, no. 5, February 1954, p. 305. 9. J. Aounner, “Un événement théâtral," in Progrès, no. 5, February 1954, p. 6-8. 10. Neldi, “El Kahina,” p. 4. 11. Ibid. 12. A. Djelloul, Al-Kahana (Paris: Debresse, 1957). 13. Ibid., p. 94. 14. Ibid., p. 94. 15. M. Wâdih, B ir al-Kâhina (Algiers: S.N.E.D, 1974). 16. In Algerian dialect, a Frenchman is called a Rùmî. 17. For more details about Kateb Yacine, see J. Arnaud, Recherches sur la littérature maghrébine de langue française. Le cas de Kateb Yacine, vol. II (Paris: Harmattan, 1982). Reedited under the title La littérature maghrébine de langue française. Le cas de Kateb Yacine (Paris: Publisud, 1986). 18. Kateb Yacine, “Toujours la ruée vers l’or,” entretien avec Mediene Benamar, first published in Cultures, no. 0, July, 1988. Republished in Le poète, p. 132. 19. For Amrouche, Jugurtha is the personification o f the North African. Amrouche takes all the colonial descriptions of the Berber, which as we have seen are all negative despite the appearance of some of them, attributes them to Jugurtha, and makes them rather excellent qualities. Amrouche does not proceed by a total opposition, that is to say, he does not maintain, for in­ stance, that Berber thought is logical when the French say it is pre-logical. Amrouche rather accepts the fact that the Berber mind is contradictory, but he attributes the contradictions to the various and contradictory situations in which the Berbers have found themselves. Amrouche sees in this an excellent quality of the Berbers that consists of adapting themselves to many different conditions, yet remaining themselves. Whereas a French colonial sees in this a manifestation of fickleness, Amrouche considers it as an ability of the Berbers to question what others take for granted. Amrouche’s approach is opposed to that o f the Salafis who reject all the propositions of the French. Amrouche shows that he is embedded in the French colonial cognitive system. Neverthe­ less, he draws attention to the fact that even within this system visions are different and differences must be taken into account for a full understanding of the indigenes for the benefit of both France and the indigenes themselves. Amrouche writes, indeed: “If one spares his self-respect and the feeling he has

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o f his dignity, one can make him a friend and gain a lot from him even the most passionate devotion. For he is generous to the point of lavishness.” “L’eternal Jugurtha,” p. 63. 20. K. Yacine, Nedjma (Paris: Seuil, 1956). English translation by Bernard Aresu (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1991). 21. For the analysis of Yacine’s novel Nedjma, see especially J. Arnaud, La littérature maghrébine; K. Auberkken, L’étoile d ’araignée: Une lecture de Nedjma de Kateb Yacine (Paris: Publisud, 1986); Ch. Bonn, Kateb Yacine, Nedjma (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1990). 22. Yacine, Nedjma, English translation, pp. 170-71. 23. Ibid., p. 135. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 165. 26. For Kateb Yacine the name Algeria itself tells about this state; it is an Arabic name which means “islands.” It must be replaced, in his opinion, by Amazigh. K. Yacine, “C ’est african qu’il faut se dire,” pp. 101-2. 27. K. Yacine, “Nedjma et Kablout,” in Y oeuvre en fragments, edited by J. Arnaud (Paris: Sindbad, 1986), p. 81. 28. K. Yacine, “La femme sauvage,” in L’oeuvre en fragments, pp. 427-31. First published under the title of “La Kahina” in Dérives, (Montreal), Special Issue, “ Voix maghrébines,” nos. 31-32, 1982, pp. 23-29. This play was also translated into Tamazight, that is, Kabyle. 29. Ibid., L’oeuvre, p. 427. 30. Ibid., L’oeuvre, p. 428. 31. Ibid., L’oeuvre, pp. 428-29. 32. A Berber woman was worth a thousand pieces of gold. Yacine must have read this in Ibn Khaldûn who indeed reports it. It is worthy of remark that Yacines satire, not against Islam, but against Muslims, is virulent. Islam for him helped a nation to arise, and make them progress when a man in the desert preached it. In the modern period, the same people used the same verses to send them back to sleep. Nedjma, p. 119. The Islamists saw in Yacine one of their fiercest enemies. His funeral in 1988 was marked by protests and a clash between his admirers and the FIS. 33. Ibid., L’oeuvre, p. 431. 34. Ibid. 35. Ibid., p. 428. 36. Kateb Yacine, “C’est Africain qu il faut se dire,” op.cit., pp. 107-8. 37. “La propagande communiste en Afrique du Nord,” Renseignements Coloniaux, no. 10, October 1928, pp. 653-55. 38. See for Morocco, C. Palazzoli, Le Maroc politique (Paris: Sindbad, 1974), pp. 291-348. 39. M. Kayr-Eddine, Agadir (Paris: Seuil, 1967). The author died in Mo­ rocco in November 1995.

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40. Ibid., p. 57. 41. Ibid., pp. 58-59. 42. Ibid., p. 65. 43. Yusuf b. Tachfin, a pious Berber ruler, solidly established the Almohad dynasty when it was threatened, at its beginning, by internal conflicts. Having founded Marrakech as his capital, he easily subdued Andalusia. He died in 1106-7, leaving an immense empire including the Maghrib and Muslim Spain. 44. M. Kayr-Eddine, Agadir, p. 68. 45. Ibid., p. 69. 46. Ibid., p. 17. 47. Ibid., p. 143. 48. A myth which has its origin in Christianity. M. Eliade writes: “For whatever we may think of the scientific claims o f Marx, it is clear that the author of the Communist Manifesto takes up and carries on one o f the great eschatological myths of the Middle East and Mediterranean world, namely: the redemption part to be played by the Just (the ‘elect,’ the ‘anointed,’ the ‘innocent,’ the ‘missioner,’ in our own days by the proletariat), whose suffer­ ings are invoked to change the ontological status o f the world.” Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, English translation by P. Mairet (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1960), p. 25. French text Mythes, rêves et mystères (Paris: Gallimard, 1957), pp. 20-21. 49. C. Palazzoli, La Maroc. 50. N. Farès, La mémoire de l ’absent (Paris: Seuil, 1974). 51. Ibid., p. 147. 52. Ibid., pp. 156-57. 53. Ibid., p. 146. 54. The Bible, edited by H. May and B. Metzger (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 432. 55. N. Farès, La mémoire, p. 146. 56. This myth has been rooted, since the advent o f Islam, in the Arab societies. It is believed that the center o f pure language and faith is Mecca where the Q ur’ân was revealed to the Prophet. Therfore Mecca is the origin of the purity o f Arabic as well as of Islam. The closer one is to this place, the purer is one’s Arabic and faith. D. Reig, Arabologies. Points de vue sur le lexique arabe (Thèse de doctorat d’Etat, Paris III, 1985), vol. II. It is this myth which explains the quest of the Maghribi ulema and saints which in most cases begins somewhere in N orth Africa and ends some­ where in the East. It is also this myth which explains, even today, the general attitude o f the Arabs o f the Mashriq (East) to N orth Africa as being less Arab. 57. Abdelmajid Laroui, La Kahéna (Tunis: l’Entreprise, 1990). 58. Ibid., p. 178. 59. Ibid., p. 67.

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60. Tahar Wattar, Al-lâz: Al-ishq wa al-mawtfi al-zaman al-harâshi (Beirut: Dâr Ibn Rushd, 1980). 61. Ibid., p. 207. 62. Ibid. 63. Ibid., p. 219. 64. S. Ben Cheneb, “L’Algérie littéraire,” in l ’Encyclopédie coloniale et mari­ time, Algérie et Sahara, vol. II (Paris: 1946), p. 252. 65. Kateb Yacine especially makes this parallel between Arabic and French. He says: “Arabization is to impose on a people a language that is not theirs, and thus fight theirs, and kill it. Like the French when they used to forbid schoolchildren to speak Arabic or Tamazight because they wanted to make Algeria French.” “C ’est africain,” p. 107.

Conclusion

I have examined the legend o f the Kahina, from its appearance in the beginning o f the ninth century until the present, even as it still continues to appear both in oral traditions and in the literature o f various social and ethnic groups— Berbers, N orth Africans, N orth African Jews, French Jews o f N orth African descent. It has captured the imagination because it speaks directly to the trans­ formation o f N orth Africa from a Berber, Byzantine, Christian, Jewish land to an Arab-Berber Muslim land. My analysis o f the earliest texts shows that the legend o f the Kahina is founded on a memory in perpetual transformation, a fret which has made any writing o f the legend by a positivist historian nothing but a construc­ tion o f his own mythology. It is precisely this fact which made the subse­ quent historians and ideologues articulate their own mythology, which corresponded to their own situations. From its beginning, while in con­ struction, the legend as written by the earliest Arab historians in the East explained for them how Ifnqiya was subdued by Islam. For them, the episode o f the Kahina is like those numerous episodes when the Muslim hero, in charge o f a mission assigned to him by the Caliph, fulfills a divine duty. The Kahina in the earliest narratives o f W âqidî, Ibn Khayyât, and Balâdhurî, is in fact, a Muslim anti-hero obstructing the spread o f the faith and creating a state o f disorder where the law o f God is suspended. H er death represents the end o f an era— the Jâhiliya— and the opening (fath) o f another— Islam. This mythology had its vital function within the Arab-Islamic commu­ nity which was engaged in expanding its political power and imposing its

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will on other people. It was not aimed at explaining anything to the Berbers. It was only after numerous revolts, and the establishing o f a Berber dy­ nasty, that a mythology was elaborated, mainly through the legend o f the Kahina. This historiography cast the Berbers in a new role. By the end o f the ninth century, the legend was elaborated in Egypt by Ibn 'A bd alHakam and a bit later in Ifrîqiya, where the oral tradition flourished and constantly fed historiography. New themes, new motifs, new details were integrated into the written accounts. By introducing among other themes the adoption o f Khâlid, the destruction o f the country, and the Berbers joining the Muslims before the final clash, the legend articulated hence­ forth the myth o f the Berber acceptance o f Islam. This myth was closely related to another which explains it— the Canaanite or Yemenite origin o f the Berbers. By the fourteenth century, the legend was complete, and the Arab-Berber mythology was clearly articulated in the accounts o f Ibn Khaldûn. And it was this same mythology which continued to function in N orth Africa until the nineteenth century and the establishment o f French rule. In Algeria especially, the French did not want to achieve less than the Arabs; they too sought to make Algeria theirs, to appropriate the country, its land, its history, and its people. Having established settlements, the French elaborated a whole mythology to justify the enterprise and to ex­ plain the historical basis for making Algeria French. Here again, the leg­ end o f the Kahina was the needed link, precisely because it is a narrative o f origin, explaining the changes that occurred in the seventh century. The Arabs, as we have seen, maintained that the Berbers adopted Islam o f their own free will, motivated by their common origin with the Arabs. In other words, N orth Africa chose to be Arab and Muslim. The French proceeded differently: they focused on the resistance o f the Kahina to demonstrate that N orth Africa did not choose to be Arab, but was forced. Furthermore, N orth Africa had never been Arab. The Arab presence is only an accident in its trajectory. N orth Africa was Roman, and at the time o f the Arab arrival was at once Byzantine and Berber. Thus, the French occupation o f Algeria was justified. The Arabs were not really colo­ nized; the French took from them what, in the past, was Roman, therefore French. This view justified any exclusion o f the Arabs from power, any expropriation o f their property, and any nullification o f their cultural pres­ ence. The matter was different for the Berbers, who in the French view were originally European, but who missed the boat, so to speak. T he task o f the French was to help them progress. This mythology is expressed in all the French writing about the legend o f the Kahina, with differences, sometimes slight and sometimes signifi­

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cant, between each historian. In Mercier’s account, the Kahina is a Berber heroine opposed with the help o f the Byzantines to the Arab invasion. Mercier evokes the struggle o f the past to create a division among the Algerian population in the present. Moreover, he makes the Berbers a distinct entity, linked to the French but only in the most marginal way. Gautier, on the other hand, is not content with this division. Knowing that the more society is divided, the easier it will be for the French to rule, he adds a division between, on the one hand, the nomadic population from which, supposedly, the Kahina sprang, and, on the other, the seden­ tary population o f Kusayla. The first represents disorder and anarchy, the Arab left alone; the second, order and civilization, the Berber helped by the Byzantine. W ithin French society, the Jews were a group that had other concerns. Already organized as a political force by the Alliance Israélite, they were very concerned with their co-religionists in N orth Africa. Cazès was the earliest French Jew who used the legend o f the Kahina to express the ideology o f the Alliance Israélite. By portraying the Kahina as a gentile persecuting the Jews, he was serving the program o f the Alliance, which sought to create a universal Jewish consciousness. Slouschz, using the same legend, a little bit later, sought to justify the decrét Crémieux by articulating the myth o f the Babylonian origin o f the N orth African Jews. This myth was intended to justify the integration o f the N orth African Jews into the European community. The work o f Cazès and Slouschz served as a point o f departure for Israeli historians who sought to integrate the Kahina into Jewish history and make her a na­ tional heroine. Once this was done, the Kahina could then be claimed by another segment o f Israelis, the N orth African Jews, not only to distin­ guish themselves from other groups, but also to assert their active partici­ pation in the history o f the Jews. French colonial mythology, though first elaborated by historians, was immediately propagated by literature— novels and plays. The earliest nov­ els were in fact exact reproductions o f the work o f the historians, espe­ cially Gautier and, among the Jewish writers, Slouschz. In the post-colonial period, the legend remained an object of literature, embedded in the colo­ nial narrative tradition. At the same time, it expressed other issues com­ mon to this area, including the emergence o f militant Islam and the issue o f Maghribi immigration in France. French historiography was not written for the colonized population of North Africa but for the French themselves. The issue was to convince public opinion, indifferent at the beginning, o f the right of the French to be in North Africa. Historians such as Emile-Félix Gautier, Ernest Mercier,

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and Stéphane Gsell were not demagogues, but scholars elaborating the colonial mythology, while believing that their scholarship actually shed light on N orth Africa. Belief is a fundamental characteristic o f myth. Thus, the N orth African populations, w hether Berber or Arab, were not the recipients o f this mythology, but only its objects. T he French were both senders and receivers. In this respect, French mythology is radically differ­ ent from the Arab mythology, not only in its message, but in the way it was written and the function it fulfilled in various contexts. And herein may lie one cause o f the collapse o f the French colonial system and the success o f the Arabization o f N orth Africa. French mythology was characteristically exclusive and divisive. It tended to separate the Berbers from the Arabs, and the Jews from both. It linked the Berber to the French, only to throw him out o f modern time, to place him in a primitive phase o f development. T he Berber is indeed o f Euro­ pean origin, but he did not develop, and he is linked to the French as is a primitive man to a modern man; modern man recognizes his ancestor, bu t resents being identified w ith him. T he French would help the Berbers to reach the level o f Western civilization, but since the French historians were positivists, the difference between the Berbers and the French would re­ main the same forever. Western civilization is the model, the only road o f hum an development, the future o f humanity, but since the idea o f progress is so fundamental in the positivist ideology, the more the Berber progresses, the more French civilization advances, and the more the Berber is perpetu­ ally lost in the past o f Europeans. Arabic historiography, by contrast, was written by Berbers as well as by Arabs or Berberophiles.1 It was not intended to divide and rule, b u t rather to fuse and rule, thus having an integrative function. The Berbers were linked to the Arabs, w hether through a Yemenite origin or through a Canaanite origin. T he priority o f accepting Islam was no longer relevant after the second generation o f Muslims. French mythology failed, in the long run, to justify the colonial system because it created its own opponents in Algerian society— the Salafis op­ posed it with an Islamic mythology, and the Berberists elaborated their mythology derived from the French to claim their identity against the French. The colonial mythology, however, did succeed in dividing Alge­ rian society. We have seen that the Salafi mythology is basically an Arab and Islamic mythology revived (like the movement itself) to thwart the French my­ thology, to provide ideological support for the struggle for independence. It remains, because o f its origin, fundamentally integrative. This function, an aspect o f its strength in the past, became its weakness in the post­

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colonial period. W hile the Salafí mythology succeeded in thwarting the effort o f the French colonial mythology, it failed in eradicating its divisive effect. T he Arabo-Islamic ideology has been indeed criticized for being assimilationist, that is, intolerant o f minorities. T he French colonial mythology, during the colonial period, was already being transformed and adopted by a group o f Berber youth to use it against the French themselves. In the post-colonial period, this Berber mythology, because o f its origin, but also because it is common to a spe­ cific group, has been ferociously opposed to the Salafi mythology. The legend o f the Kahina, which in its various guises served all types o f my­ thology, symbolized this chasm in Algerian society. In the colonial period, for both groups the Kahina was the symbol o f Algeria, whether as a Mus­ lim or a Berber country. For both groups, she was a symbol, but with different content. For the Salafis she was basically an Algerian heroine, a monotheist, who cooperated with the Arabs by sending her sons to Hassan, w ithout inflicting humiliation on her Berber population. For the Berber youth, she was a Berber first and foremost who represented the fight against the invaders. The Kahina as a symbol was artificially unifying for both groups. The post-colonial period, however, revealed the hidden contradic­ tion. Algeria was declared only Arab and Muslim, and its Berber compo­ nent was denied. In the writing o f this era, the Kahina is no longer the heroine, she is an opponent. T he Algerians today live in a situation that has led to the emergence o f Islamic militancy, which opposes the state and the Berberists. T he legend o f the Kahina was the link that expressed all these mytholo­ gies; it was the source o f the production o f historical discourses and o f the creation o f literary works. The process has not ended: other texts, articu­ lating other known and unknown mythologies, will appear. The legend o f the Kahina will be inspiring for others, as it has been for the author o f the most recent text about it: this study, which may be subject to the same type o f analysis. Note 1. Such is the case of Ibn Khaldun, who uses many Berber sources which are now lost. See R. Basset, “Les généalogistes berbères,” in Archives Berbères, vol. I (Paris: Leroux, 1915), pp. 3-111.

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Index

Aaron, 99 Abbas, Ferhat, 90, 116, 152 n.19, 160 n.136 'Abd Allâh b. Abî Sarh, xvi, 117, 121, 132 Abd Allâh b. Djafar, 132, 133 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwân, Caliph, 2 3, 9, 78, 106 n.22 'Abd al-Qâdir, 40, 166 Abdas (son of the Kahina), 174, 175 Abdel-Malek, A., 158 n.115 'Abduh, Muhammad, 112, 117, 154 n.46 Abû al-Muhâjir, 117 Adarion (son of the Kahina), 174 Adwani, 131-134 Afghâni, al*, 154 n.46 Agadir (Kayr-Eddine), 169-171 Aghlabids, 130 Ahçan (Hassân b. al-Nu'mân), 92 Ahmar Khaddou (Red Cheek), 134 Algeria, 90-92, 104, 141, 148, 166, 178-179, 181 n.26; Arabs in, 139, 143-144, 169; assimilation in, 116, 152 n.18; Berbers in, 139, 143-144, 168, 169; the French in, 34-37, 44, 51-52, 61, 65 n.40,

92, 109 n.60, 112, 116, 186-188; Islam in, 142, 146, 169; Jews in, 50, 67 n.72; and the Mashriq, 112, 114; nationalism in, 112, 116, 146, 152 n.21, 165, oral traditions in, 134, 136-137; setders in, 37-38, 44; women in, 145, 146, 167, 169 Algérianistes, 75, 80, 103 Algiers, School of, 75 Ali b. Abi Taleb, 133 'Allât al-Fâsî, 120, 121, 122, 154 nn.45, 46 Al-lâz: Al- 'ihq wa al-mawt f i alzaman al-harâshi (Wattâr), 177— 179 Alliance Israélite Universelle, 54, 55, 187 Althusser, Louis, xviii, 67-68 n.77 Amazigh, 167-169, 178, 181 n.26 Amazons, 89 Amin (son of the Kahina), 97, 98 Amri (husband of the Kahina), 86, 89 Amrid (son of the Kahina), 97 Amrouche, Jean, 166, 180-181 n.19 Andalusia, 27 n.59, 121, 124, 182 n.43

208

Annales school, 139, 138 n.114 Anti-colonialism, 73, 79, 80-81, 103-104, 105-106 n n .ll, 12, 126-131. 138 Antinya (daughter of the Kahina), 164 Anti-Semitism, 99-100 Aounner, Driss, 162 Arabic (language), 46, 56 Arab-Islamic ideology, 139 Arabs, 5, 7, 43, 125, 177; as alien to North Africa, 174, 182 n.56; “Arabization,” 183 n.65, 188; and Berbers, 22, 74-75, 90, 93, 120121, 126, 130, 138, 164-165, 173-174, 188; as conquerors, 167169; as destructive, 44, 84; and the French, 44, 90, 186; as heroes, 113, 118; historiography, 31, 34, 61; and Islam, 116, 121, 162, 163; and Jews, 51 ; and the Maghrib, 123-124; nationalism of, 51, 96, 111, 126, 139, 147-149; in opposition, 36-39, 61, 77, 103, 112-113, 128, 142-144; recon­ ciled, 113-115; in Tunisia, 96, 118, 119 Assimilationism, 189 Association of Ulemas, 151 n.7 Augustine, Saint, 90, 109 n.55, 143 Aurès, 10, 21, 80, 128, 131-134 Awrâba (tribe), 40 Babar (husband of the Kahina), 132 Babar (son of the Kahina), 83, 133 Bach Hamba, Ali, 152 n.22 Baghya, 11, 15 Bajja, 11 Bakhtin, M.. 5, 6, 24 n.18, 24-25 n.22 Bakri, 9-10 Balâdhurî, 3, 4, 185 Banû Hilâl, 79, 80, 106-107 n.29, 107-108 n.30

Index

Barqa, 20 Barr b. Qays 'Aylân, 19 Basset, R., 107-108 n.30 Bataille, Roestte and Jean, 83-85, 103 Bay'a, 3, 24 n.10 Bayân (Ibn Tdhârî), 58 Beauguite, Germaine, 88-90, 104 Bel, A., 107-108 n.30 “La Belle Kahena” (Véhel), 72-74 Ben 'Abd Allah, 'Abd al-'Aziz, 120123, 126 Benichou-Abouker, Berthe, 81-83, 104 Beranes (Bernes), 42, 86, 87 Berbers, 20, 47, 87; in Algeria, 139, 143-144, 168, 169; Arab origin of, 16-17, 19, 38, 118, 121-122; and Arabs, 5, 22, 74-75, 90, 93, 120-121, 126, 130, 138, 162-165, 173-174, 176; and Arabs, in opposition, 36-39, 61, 77, 103, 112-113, 128, 142-144, 188; and Arabs, reconciled, 113-116; Asian origin of, 125; autonomy of, 128— 129, 143, 159 n.125; “Berber Spring,” 139, 167; “Berberism,” 142-144, 160 n.138, 178, 188, 189; and Byzantines, 40, 41, 77, 103, 127, 128; and Christians, 32, 33, 40, 93; as contradictory, ISO181 n.19; Eastern origin of, 8-9, 17-18, 22, 25 n.23, 27 n.59, 38, 64-65 n.34, 114-116, 125-126, 186, 188; in Egypt, 114; European origin of, 37, 39, 43, 63 n.23, 76, 125, 138, 188; execution of prisoners by, 77, 86-87, 98; flag of, 80; and the French, 138, 186187; and Greeks, 32, 33; and Islam, 7-8, 22, 39, 58-59, 114, 116, 121, 128-129, 133-134, 162-164, 174, 186; nationalism of, 138-139, 158 n.109; as “primitive,” 43, 76, 85, 130, 176,

Index

188; as resisting invaders, 127128; and Romans, 114, 118, 173174; and Saint Augustine, 142-143; Salafi movement on, 121; in Tunisia, 176; and Zenata, 41-43 Bernard, Augustin, 109 Bernes, 42, 86, 87 Berque, Jacques, 40, 44, 126, 156 n.76 Bertrand, Louis, 75, 106 n.13, 109 Bey, Ahmad, 135 Biskra, xvii, 132 Bled al-makhzen, 119-120 Bled al-siba, 119-120, 153 n.37 Blidinah, 79-80 Bloch, Marc, xv, 158 n.114 Botr, 42, 43, 46, 86, 87 Boujad, 91 Boulanger, Jules, 38 Boumediene, Houari, 139 Bourguiba, Habib, 96, 152 n.22 Bousquet, G. H., 67 n.64 Bûna, 11 Butr, 121-122 Byzantines, 11, 113, 118-119, 121, 124-128, 133. 164, 165; and Berbers, 40, 41, 77, 103, 127-128 Cabrissot, 131 Camels, 41-42, 128 Canaanites, 114 Cardinal, Pierre, 91-92, 104-105 Cardonne, Denis Dominique, 31-32, 62 n.7 Carthage, 6, 20, 113, 119, 122, 126127 Casino, José, 87-88 Castle of Jim, 16, 36, 124 Let Cavaliers d'Allah (J. and J. Tharaud), 74-75 Cazès, David, 52-55, 187; poem found by, 52-53, 56, 58-59, 68 n.81, 73-74, 135

209

Céline (daughter of the Kahina), 175-176 Chaker, S., 159 n.I25 “Cheikha,” 86 Chevallard-Fillipi, Huguette, 92-94, 104-105 Chouraqui, André, 58-59, 60, 68 n.94 Christianity, and Islam, 31-32, 39, 60-61, 129 Christians, 32-34, 39-40, 59, 82-83, 93 Civilizing mission of Islam, 8, 19-20, 114 Civilizing mission of the French, 43, 47, 92, 114-115, 188 Colonial mythology, 87-88 Committee of Patriotic Action (Morocco), 154 n.45 Communism, 169-171, 179, 182 n.48 Community, consent of, in oral tradition, 13, 26 n.39 Companions of the Prophet, 132, 133 Construction of self and other, 123 Creation (artistic), 13 Crémieux (French minister of justice), 50, 67 n.72 Cultural totality, xviii Dabbâgh, Abd al-Rahmân, 16 Dahiya (the Kahina), 56 Damia (the Kahina), 88, 97 Damya bent Nifak Cohen (the Kahina), 72 Dâr al-Harb, 11-12, 31 Dâr al-Islâm, 11-12 Daumas, Captain (of the Bureau Arabe), 37 “The Day of trial,” 11 Décoloniser l'histoire, 126 Decolonization. See Anti-colonialism De Slane, Mac Guckin, 40 Desparmet, J., 152 n.21

210

Destour Party, 117, 152 n.23 Destruction of land. See The Kahina, destruction of land by Deya (the Kahina), 72 Dialogism, 6-8 Dihia (the Kahina), 85 Dihya (the Kahina), 83, 167 Dihya b. Thâbit (the Kahina), 113 Dinâr Abû al-Muhâjir, xvi, 76 Diversity, North African, 129-130; of Algeria, 166 Divine test of hero, 10 Diyâb, 79, 107-108 n.30 Djelloul, Ahmed, 163-164 El-Djem (Thysdrus), 73, 102 Djizya, 79, 107-108 n.30 Djmaa (the Kahina), 133 Djokhean (son of the Kahina), 133 Djokheran (son of the Kahina), 83 Djorawa. See Jrâwa Djrawa. See Jrâwa Dufourcq, Ch. E., 39-40 Dumézil, George, xvii-xviii Egypt, 114, 125-126, 136 Eliade, M., 182 n.48 El-Milli, 110 n.76 Engels, E, 38 Epic, 8, 24-25 n.22 Epistemic subject, 53 Es Semech (son of the Kahina), 133 Un État de manque, 3 Fabar (officer of the Bureau Arabe), 37 Farès, Nabil, 172-174, 178-179 Fâsî, A., 155 n.59 Fath, 121, 154 n.51 Fathma, Lalla, 145 Fatimids, 107 n.29 Fayir, 84, 108 n.42 Febvre, Lucien, 158 n.114 Feminism, 145-147, 169, 178 Féraud, L., 131

Index

Fiction, 72, 88, 161-162, 178 FIS. See Front Islamique du Salut FLN. See Front de Libération Nationale Foucauld, Charles de, 120 Fournel, Henri, 37-38, 49-50 The French, 29, 48, 80-81, 122, 125, 161-162, 169; in Algeria, 34-37, 44, 51-52, 61, 65 n.40, 186; and Arabs, 44, 90, 186; and Berbers, 138, 186-187; civilizing mission of, 43, 47, 92, 114-115, 188; colonial mythology of, 138, 150, 165, 186-189, 188; as heirs of Rome, 43, 114-115, 122; histori­ ography of, 61, 71, 139, 148; in Morocco, 41, 119-120; and Muslims, 94, 137; in North Africa, 36-38, 61, 67 n.64, 75, 88, 91, 129 French (language), in North Africa, 46-47 Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), 90, 92, 109 n.59, 139, 142, 160 n.136, 169 Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), 137, 142, 143, 159 n.120, 181 n.32 Gabès, 9 Gaboan, 101-102 Gaildraud, Jean-Pierre, 109 n.60 Garrot, H., 115, 126 Gautier, Emile-Félix, 40-45, 61, 63 n.23, 128, 187 Ghana (son of the Kahina), 164 El-Ghassani. See Hassân b. al-Nu'mân Grandjean, G., 78-80, 103-104 Greeks, 32, 33 Gregory, Exarch, xvi, 47, 132 Groups, ideology and mythology of, xviii Gsell, Stéphane, 45, 66 n.57, 85, 103, 188 Guernier, E., 39

Index

Guiramand, Simone, 94-96 Gurzil, 84, 108 n.42 Haçan (Hassân b. al-Nu'mân), 95 Haçane (Hassân b. al-Nu'mân), 78 Haiza, 89 Hâni b. Bakkûr al-Darsl, 19 Hannah (Céline, daughter of the Kahina), 175 Hannibal, 179 n.4 Hanoub (son of the Kahina), 92, 9394 Hassân b. al-Nu'mân, 2-4, 6, 8-12, 19, 73-74, 78, 92, 95, 98, 100102, 115, 121, 124, 126-127, 145-146, 175-176; as Islamic hero, 117; destruction of Carthage by, 20, 113; destruction of land by, 84 Hero, divine test of, 10 Hilalis, 79, 80, 106-107 n.29, 107108 n.30 Hirschberg, Hiam, 56-58, 59 Histoire de l A ’ frique du Nord (Julien), 45 Historical narrative, 7 Historicization of the present, 156 n.75 Historiography, Arab, 7, 14, 23, 31, 34; French, 61, 139; Islamic, 23 A History o f the Jews in North Africa (Hirschberg), 56-58 Husayn, Lahmek, 158 n.109 lamina, 132 Al-'Ibar (Abd al-Rahmân Ibn Khaldûn), 17-19 Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam, 5-9, 13, 22-23 Ibn Abl Dinar, 19 Ibn Abi Diyâf, 20, 21 Ibn al-Athlr, 2, 14, 15, 23 Ibn al-Raqlq, 15, 26 n.46 Ibn Bâdis, 112 151 nn.7, 8, 152 n. 19 Ibn Hazm, 27 n.59

211

Ibn 'Idhâri, 19. 58 Ibn Khaldûn, Abd al-Rahmân, xvixvii, 17-19, 31, 44-45, 65 n.40, 107 n.29, 107-108 n.30, 181 n.32, 186 Ibn Khayyât, Khalifa, 3, 4, 185 Ibn-Sassi, Mohammed, 49 Ibrahimi, Bachir, 161 Ideology, xvii, xviii, 94 Ifrân (son of the Kahina), 15 Ifriqiya, xvi, 2, 4, 8, 52, 117, 132; destruction of, 14, 20, 26 n.40, 107 n.29 Ikor, Roger, 96-100, 100 n.72, 104 Ilakherter, 91 Immigration, 104-105 Independence, North African, 120 Independence, Tunisian, 118 Intertextual text, 5 Islam: in Algeria, 142, 146; and Arabs, 121, 162-164; and Berbers, 7-8, 22, 39, 58-59, 114, 116, 121, 128-130, 133-134, 162-164, 174, 176, 186; and Christianity, 31-32, 39; civilizing mission of, 8, 19-20, 114; Dâr al-Islâm, 11-12; fundamentalist, 94, 102; “upper” vs. “lower" in, 11-12, 25 n.31; women in, 145-147 Israel, 55-56, 59-60 Istiqlâl party, 120, 154 n.45, 155 n.59 Jâhiliya, 8, 142, 146, 154 n.51, 185 Jakobson, Roman, 13 Jâm, Castle of, 16, 36, 124 Jamila, 177 Jean (Patriarch), 33-34, 62 n.14 Une Jeanne d ’arc Africaine, 47 Jews: in Algeria, 50, 67 n.72; and Christians, 59, 82, 82-83; and Muslims, 82, 135, 137, 157 n.104; nationalism of, 51, 55-56, 57; in North Africa, 50, 54, 59-60, 74,

212

104, 110 n.75, 187; oral traditions of, 134-135; in Tunisia, 52, 5355, 54, 72 The Jihâd, 3-4, 14 Jizya, 79, 107-108 n.30 Joan of Arc, 47, 48-49, 109 n.60 Jrâwa, 40, 43, 46, 96, 108 n.42, 129 “Judaization” of history, 136-137 Jugurtha, 130, 140, 156 n.86, ISO181 n.19 Julie (the Kahina), 81 Julien, Charles-André, 45, 51, 126 Kabyles, 136-140 Kabylia, “Frenchification” in, 162 La Kahena (Cardinal), 91-92 La Kahina (Laroui), 174-177 La Kahena, par lor, par le fer, par le sang (Grandjean), 78-80 La Kahena, reine berbère (BenichouAbouker), 81-83 La Kahena, reine des Aurès (Beauguite), 88-90 Kahin, 96 The Kahina: as Algerian, 92, 112113, 115, 145-147, 163, 167, 189; as anti-colonialist, 129, 130; as anti-hero, 14-15, 60, 99, 118, 135, 136, 144-145, 185, 189; as anti-Jewish, 52-53; as Arab, 4, 7879, 155 n.69; and Arabs, 3, 124, 125, 139; as atheist, 140; as Berber, 1-2, 18. 32, 35-36, 39, 52-54, 115, 129, 138-144, 167, 172, 187; as Botr, 43; as Byzantine 133; and Byzantines, 121; as champion of tolerance, 102-103; as “cheikha,” 86; as Christian, 34, 129, 177; as communist, 170-171; daughter of, 86, 92-94, 164, 165, 174, 175; decapitation of, 87; and demons, 18; destruction of land by, 14, 20, 35, 38, 46, 77-78, 84, 93, 95, 107 n.29, 117-118, 124,

Index

135-136, 146, 163, 167, 172-173, 177; Eastern origin of, 37, 43-44; and Egypt, 136; as eunuch, 34; as evil, 136, 176; femininity of, 36; as feminist symbol, 145-147, 178; as fortress, 91, 92; and the French, 51-52, 71, 141-142, 187; geneal­ ogy of, 18-19; hair of, 13, 25 n.36; as hero, 36, 60, 74, 102, 117-118, 145-147, 187; as infidel, 4; and Islam, 1-2, 82, 115, 136, 137; and the Jâhiliya, 8; as Jean (Patriarch), 33-34, 62 n.14; as Jewish, 35-36, 38-40, 47-51, 5560, 72, 74, 81-83, 95-97, 102, 104, 110 n.76, 113, 136-137, 140-142, 144, 187; and Jews, 60, 69 n.97; 135, 187, as Joan of Arc, 47-49; as Judeo-Christian, 174; lifespan of, 19; as monotheist, 163, 164; as Moorish princess, 33; as Muslim, 8, 163; name of, given to children, 139, 158 n.116; names of, 56; as nationalist hero, 129; as nomad, 43, 187; as non-Berber, 50; as non-Jew, 52-54, 139-140; as non-religious, 171; oppressive rule of, 2, 52, 59, 73, 84, 87, 117, 118; oral traditions of, 1-2, 1213, 21-22, 131-136; as pagan, 124, 145; physiology of, 12, 13, 25 n.32; prediction of future by, 8, 12, 14, 85; and quest stories, 4, 8; rape of, 97; as resistance fighter, 186; as Roman, 129, 133; as sedentary, 46; sons of, 6, 15, 36, 38-39, 76-77, 81, 83, 86-87, 92, 97, 109 n.60, 113, 120, 124, 133, 163-165, 174-175; as sorcerer, 13, 124, 136, 164, 177; as Tunisian, 144; and Tunisians, 176; as unifying Arabs and Berbers, 41, 164; as Zenata, 43. See also Khâlid b. Yazld al-'Absi; Kusayla

Index

The Kahina (organization), 144 La Kahina, la magnifique (Kakon), 100-103 Kahiya (the Kahina), 56 Kahla (the Kahina), 135 Kakon, J. P., 100-103, 104 Kayr-Eddine, Mohammed, 169-171, 179, 181 n.39 Keblout, 166 Kelb-Roumia, 131-132 Khadija Bent Belkacem, Lalla, 145 Khaled (Khâlid), 77, 78, 94-96, 172 Khâlid b. Yazîd al-Absî, 56, 90, 100102, 124, 162-164, 175; adopted by the Kahina, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 22, 81, 94, 98; as Bedouin, 172; as betrayer of the Kahina, 35; as informer, 81, 83-84, 113; as lover of the Kahina, 38, 77, 78, 81, 89, 94-95, 98, 101; marriage of, to the Kahina, 38; as North African, 95 Khayr al-Dîn, 52 Kitâb El Adouani, 131 Koceila (Kusayla), 76, 81, 88-89, 92, 100-101 Koceila-ben-lemezen (Kusayla), 131 Koceila-ben-louzem (Kusayla), 131 Kosseila (Kusayla), 85 Kusayla, xvi-xvii, 2, 88-89, 100-101, 115, 131-132, 174-175; as Algerian hero, 112-113; as Berber, 85-86, 139; as Bernes, 42; as Byzantine, 42, 133; as Christian, 40, 85; his general, 9, 10; as Jewish, 47; as lover of the Kahina, 76, 77, 101, 175; as resistance fighter, 130; as Roman, 40, 85-86, 133; as sedentary, 187; as son of the Kahina, 6, 39, 92, 163; as traitor, 136, 137 Lack, situation of, 3, 23-24 n.8

213

Lajm, fortress of, 10 Language, and Berber nationalism, 139; and race, 46 Laroui, Abdallah, 126-129, 156 n.74 Laroui, Abdelmajid, 174-177 Latin (language), 46 Latinité, 106 n.13 Lebeau, H., 33-34 Ledjem, fortress of, 102 Le Tourneau, R., 51 Lévi-Strauss, C , 155 n.65 Liana, 131-132 Louis, Paul, 80 Lyautey, Hubert, 47, 67 n.65 Madani, Tawfîq, 112-115, 116, 151 n.7, 155 n.59, 160 n.136, 161, 179 n.4 Maddâh al-nabî, 134, 157 n.98 Maßkhir, 16-17 Magali-Boisnard, 76-77, 103 Magdinier, Marcelle, 85-88 Maghdis, 122 The Maghrib, 2, 14, 20, 23, 41-42, 44, 59, 123-124 Makcen, 84, 108 n.42 Mâlikî, 10-12 Marçais, W., 45-47, 66 n.64 Maroc inutile, 119-120, 153 n.37 Maroc utile, 119-120 Marrakech, 182 n.43 Martel, Charles, 47 Marwân, Caliph, 162 Marx, K., 38, 182 n.48 Mary (mother of Jesus), 99 The Mashriq, 2, 14, 112, 114 Mashûsha (daughter of the Kahina), 115 Masinissa, 41, 65 n.45, 128 Masqueray, Emile, 45, 66 n.56, 131— 134 MCD (Mouvement pour la Culture et la Démocratie), 143, 159 n.126 Mecca, 182 n.56

214

Medaoui, 101, 102 Mcllag (father of the Kahina), 132 Melqart, 109 n.93 Memmi, Albert, 104, 110 n.76 La Mémoire de l ’absent (Farès), 172— 174 Memory, social, 22 Mercier, Ernest, 33-37, 61, 63 nn.18, 21, 23, 109 n.60, 187 Mesraim (son of the Kahina), 86, 90 Messali Hadj, 138 Mill, Mubarak, 115-116, 151 n.8 Miskiana, 101. See also Wádi Miskyana Mission civilisatrice, 43, 47, 92, 114115, 188 MNA (Mouvement National Algérien), 92, 109 n.59 Mohammed, 99 Moha-ou-Hammou, 41 Monique (daughter of the Kahina), 92-94 Montagne, Roben, 120 Morocco, 21, 67 n.65, 167-171, 171; and the French, 41, 119-120; Salafi movement in, 148, 149 Moses, 99 Mouvement National Algérien (MNA), 92, 109 n.59 Mouvement pour la Culture et la Démocratie (MCD), 143, 159 n.126 Mu'âwiya b. Abî Sufyân, 3-4, 116 Mu'âwiya b. Hudayj, xvi Mudar, 122 Al-Mu’izz b. Bâdis, 107 n.29 Mûsâ b. Nusayr, 127 Muslim historians, 2 Muslims, 1-2, 4, 133, 134; and Christians, 32, 82; in colonial histories, 30, 62 n.2; and Jews, 82, 135, 137, 157 n.104; and the French, 94, 137. See also Islam Al-Mustansir, Caliph, 107 n.29

Index

Mustapha, 177 Myth, xvii-xviii, 125, 137, 155 n.65, 178 Mythology, colonial, 87-88, 103 Nahda (Arab Renaissance), 177 Nahr al-balâ, 6 Nair, Samir, 157-158 n.108 Násirí, 20-21 Nation, 122-123 Nationalism: Algerian, 116, 146, 152 n.21, 165; Arab. 51, 111, 126, 139, 147-149; Berber, 138-139, 158 n.109; Jewish, 51, 55-57; North African, 148-150 Nationalist Movement (Morocco), 154 nn.45, 46 Nationalist Party (Morocco), 154 n.45 Nedjma (Kateb Yacine), 166-167 Need and myth, 125, 155 n.65 Nefous (son of the Kahina), 81 Nekli, Abdallah, 162 Neo-Destour party, 119, 152 n.23 Nlnl, 15 Noah, 17-18 Nomads, 41-44, 87, 122, 126, 128, 187 North Africa, 91, 111, 120, 125-126. 169; Arabs in, 125, 126, 174, 182 n.56; Berbers in, 36, 37, 174; Christians in, 39-40, 60-61; diversity of, 45, 129-130; the French in, 61, 67 n.64, 75, 88, 129; Jews in, 50, 54, 59-60, 74, 104, 110 n.75, 141-142, 187; nationalism of, 148-150; revolu­ tionary, 80, 103-104; Romans in, 36, 37, 39-40, 43-44, 46, 129, 186; Semitic, 121, 122, 129 Numidia, 142-143, 156 n.86 Nuwayrî, 16 Olive-tree, 173 Oqba. See 'Uqba b. Nâfi

Index

Oral tradition, 1-2, 12-13, 21-23, 26 n.39. 131-136, 139, 150 Orientalism, 29, 75 Oriental origin. See Berbers, Eastern origin of; The Kahina, Eastern origin of Other, construction of, 123 Otter, M., 33 Ottoman Empire, 30, 33, 34 Ounissi, Zhor, 145-147 Parti Populaire Algérien (PPA), 138 Past, linked to present, 133 Phoenicians, 114, 116, 118, 119, 122 Poitiers (battle), 47 Polyphony, 5, 6, 24 n.18 Positivism, 185, 188 PPA (Parti Populaire Algérien), 138 Prediction of future, by the Kahina, 8, 12, 14, 85 Present: historicization of, 156 n.75; past linked to, 133 Prisoners, execution of by Berbers, 77, 86-87, 98 The Prophet, Companions of, 132, 133 Qayrawân, xvi, 2-3, 11, 107 n.29, 117 Qudayyir (son of the Kahina), 15 Quest story, 4, 8 Race and language, 46 Reality, and history, 44 Red Cheek (Ahmar Khaddour), 134 Renan, E., 38, 122-123 Revolutionary North Africa, 80, 103104 Ricoeur, Paul, 24 n.18 Romans, 43, 118-119, 122, 128, 133; and Berbers, 114, 173-174; in North Africa, 36, 37, 39-40, 46, 129 Rûm. See Byzantines

215

Sadder, 97, 98 Sadi, Said, 159 n.126 Safar, Bashir, 118, 152 n.22 Sahli, Mohammad, 126 Saint Augustine, 90, 109 n.55, 143 Saint Martin, 62 n.14 Saint-Rémy, 78, 79-80 Saladin, 142, 143 Salafi movement, 112, 120, 146149, 155 n.59, 160 n.136, 161, 169, 174, 176-179, 188-189; and Berbers, 121; narrative tradition of, 123, 147-149; as religious, 116 Salfat, 10 Satfùra, 11 Sedentary populations, 87, 122, 128, 187 Sekerdid, 81 Sekerdid al-Roumi, 94-96 Self, construction of, 123 Seline (son of the Kahina), 77 Semitic North Africa, myth of, 121, 122, 129 Shatzmiller, Maya, 17, 25 n.23 Shaykh Abû Jayda, 20 Shukr, Sharif, 107-108 n.30 Sidi Okba. See Uqba b. Nâfi Siqirdid, 164 “Situation of lack,” 3, 23-24 n.8 Slimane (son of the Kahina), 86, 89 Slouschz, Nahum, 49-51, 55, 74, 104, 187 Snake Queen of Barbaric (the Kahina), 170 Socialism, 80 Social memory, 22 Solomon, 173 Sorcery, 13, 124, 136, 164, 177 The State, 67-68 n.77 Sufis, 120 Syria, 122 Tabarqa, 10

Index

216

Tabet (father of the Kahina), 85, 100 Tafrcnt, 132 Tahûda, xvii Talbi, Mohammad, 129-131 Târîkh, 161, 179 n.l Târîkh Ifriqiya wa al-Maghrib, 15, 26 n.46 Tariq, 93, 94 Tarshish, 11 Temsit, 81 Temzit, 94-96 Territories, of Islam and war, 31 Tha alibi, 'Abd al-'Azîz, 117-119, 152 n.22, 152-153 n.24 Tharaud, Jerome and Jean, 74-75, 103, 104 Thysdrus (El-Djem), 73, 102 Tîjânî, 16, 73 Trial, the day of, 11 Tsaala, 163 The Tuareg, 132 Tunis, 92, 131 Tunisia, 21, 52-55, 72, 96, 116-119, 135-136, 148-149, 176 La Tunisie martyre (Tha'âlibî), 119 Turks, 119 'Ubayd Allah b. Sâlih, 15-16 'Umar b. 'Alî, xvi, 6 Uqba b. Nâfi, xvi-xvii, 5-6, 19, 76, 112, 117, 132, 133, 134, 136-137 'Uthmân, Caliph, xvi, 132 'Urhmân b. Sâlih, 5-6 Vandals, 118, 119, 128

Van Gennep, A., 13 Véhel, J., 72-74, 104 Wâdî al-'Adhârâ, 16 Wâdî al-Balâ, 16 Wâdi Bili, 15 Wâdih, Muhammad, 164-165 Wâdi Miknâsa, 11 Wâdî Miskyâna, 16, 19 Wâdî Nînî, 16, 26-27 n.50 Wâdî Tarda, 16 Wâqidî, 2-3, 4, 22, 56, 185 War, territory of, 31 War narratives, 2 Wattar, Tahar, 177-178 Al-Wazânî, Hassan, 154 n.45 Women, 10, 145-147, 167, 169, 178 Yacine, Kateb, 145, 165-169, 178, 181 n.26, 183 n.65 Yaghûr (son of the Kahina), 164 Yamîn (son of the Kahina), 15 Yemen, 122 Yûsuf b. Tâchfîn, 171, 182 n.43 Zaghlûl, 'Abd al-Hamîd, 124-126 Zamar, 83 Zaydân (son of the Kahina), 15 Zenata, 19, 41-43. See also Botr Zenati, R., 152 n .l8 Zenon, 85, 86, 88 Zina. 101, 102 Zionism, 51, 55-56, 57 Zirids, 107 n.29 Zuhayr b. Qays, xvii, 2, 6, 163

About the Author ABDELMAJID H A N N O U M is Assistant Professor o f Anthropology at Simons Rock College o f Bard. He has taught in the D epartm ent o f An­ thropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City.