WEBVTT 00:00.960 --> 00:05.440 The sorceress' mane swirls  around her as she screams: 00:05.440 --> 00:11.520 "I, Dihya, will be killed, and my head  carried on horseback to the Orient, 00:11.520 --> 00:14.346 exhibited before the King of Arabs." 00:14.346 --> 00:18.926 Her three sons stare in  horror: another of her visions! 00:19.786 --> 00:26.080 It’s around 697 in the Maghreb, North Africa. Most of Dihya's army of horsemen are dead, 00:26.080 --> 00:29.680 and the survivors have retreated  deep into the mountains. 00:29.680 --> 00:35.280 In the valley below, thousands of spears  and swords of General Hassan's advancing 00:35.280 --> 00:38.085 Arab army are glinting in the sun. 00:38.649 --> 00:40.544 "Mother – why won't you flee?" 00:40.880 --> 00:44.876 "I am a queen. And queens do not flee death." 00:45.440 --> 00:51.817 Who was this sorcerer queen, willing to die a  horrible death to change the fate of her people? 00:54.666 --> 00:55.578 Free People 00:56.948 --> 01:01.066 In the 7th Century, the coast of what is now Tunisia and eastern Algeria 01:01.066 --> 01:04.640 is ruled from the city of Carthage by the Byzantines. 01:04.640 --> 01:10.000 They are the surviving eastern half of the Roman  empire – but the vast interior, all the way to the 01:10.000 --> 01:15.840 Atlantic, belongs to different groups of people  the Byzantines call Moors, and the Arabs will call 01:15.840 --> 01:21.680 Berbers, probably from the Greek "barbarian". Today, some of their descendants see this as a 01:21.680 --> 01:25.515 derogatory term and prefer: Imazighen – “Free People.”  01:26.160 --> 01:29.120 These groups have lived in North  Africa for thousands of years, 01:29.120 --> 01:32.160 but are often only linked by related languages. 01:32.160 --> 01:36.160 In antiquity some of their kingdoms  were absorbed into the Roman empire, 01:36.160 --> 01:40.080 many blending into a diverse  Roman-African society. 01:40.080 --> 01:44.320 But after the Western Roman Empire collapsed  in the 5th century, and the Byzantines were 01:44.320 --> 01:51.120 only able to reclaim a fraction of the land  in 534, imperial influence slowly faded. 01:51.120 --> 01:57.200 So two centuries later, Imazighen power  is rising again: chiefs rule over small 01:57.200 --> 02:02.640 kingdoms from old Roman towns, others have  seized control over Byzantine frontier forts. 02:02.640 --> 02:07.360 Dozens of stubbornly independent tribes  follow their animals to the Saharan oases, 02:07.360 --> 02:12.000 or have settled atop the steepest cliffs,  so that no one might rule over them. 02:12.800 --> 02:16.560 In one village in the Aurès  Mountains, lives Dihya.  02:16.560 --> 02:22.320 Her enemies, the Arabs, will later  call her "al-Kahina" – "the sorceress". 02:22.320 --> 02:27.120 But her life reaches us only through  stories retold around desert campfires, 02:27.120 --> 02:29.769 so her origins remain mysterious. 02:30.306 --> 02:32.881 Dihya’s tribe stays in the mountains in the summer; 02:32.881 --> 02:36.240 in winter, they follow their flocks down to the desert steppes. 02:36.240 --> 02:41.600 We don't really know what she believes in, most  tribes worship pagan gods or their ancestors, 02:41.600 --> 02:45.440 while some have converted  to Christianity or Judaism. 02:45.440 --> 02:49.200 But just recently a new faith  has erupted into the world, 02:49.200 --> 02:55.685 carried by armies that seem to win everywhere  they go, and it is racing toward them: Islam.  02:58.480 --> 02:59.482 Rise of a Queen  03:00.960 --> 03:06.560 Muhammad, the prophet and political leader  of what is now Saudi Arabia dies in 632, 03:06.560 --> 03:11.040 but his successors from the Rashidun  Caliphate help spread his faith fast. 03:11.040 --> 03:15.840 Within a decade, the Caliphate’s armies have  destroyed the Persian Sasanian Empire and 03:15.840 --> 03:21.600 taken the Levant and Egypt away from Byzantium,  humiliating two of the world's great powers. 03:21.600 --> 03:24.400 After a bloody civil war ends in 661, 03:24.400 --> 03:28.320 the ambitious Umayyad dynasty  takes over the caliphate. 03:28.320 --> 03:33.280 To deal the Byzantines a fatal blow,  they wage war on multiple fronts. 03:33.280 --> 03:36.000 And North Africa with its strategic harbors 03:36.000 --> 03:41.520 and vast tax returns is an attractive  asset to fuel their growing empire. 03:41.520 --> 03:44.320 While some Imazighen tribes side with the Arabs 03:44.320 --> 03:48.880 early on, others ally with the  Byzantines, and fight back hard. 03:48.880 --> 03:56.640 Internal conflict slows the conquest, but in 692  the Umayyad caliph Abd-Al Malik secures control, 03:56.640 --> 03:59.600 eager to prove the strength of his empire. 03:59.600 --> 04:04.800 He sends a new general to the Maghreb:  Hassān ibn al-Nuʿmān al-Ghassānī, 04:04.800 --> 04:07.436 part of the Umayyad elite in Syria. 04:07.436 --> 04:11.440 He sweeps west with 40,000 men, the largest Muslim 04:11.440 --> 04:17.440 force ever seen in the region, although the figure  was maybe inflated by later Arab historians. 04:17.440 --> 04:24.160 And he goes for the biggest prize first: Carthage,  the ancient center of Roman power in North Africa. 04:24.160 --> 04:30.560 When they reach it, the Byzantines have fled in  fear – a huge victory for the Umayyad Empire. 04:30.560 --> 04:33.120 Just the land beyond is still not theirs, 04:33.120 --> 04:38.160 so general Hassan asks around: who's  the most powerful ruler out there? 04:38.160 --> 04:42.160 In this shifting world of self-ruling  tribes and loose confederations, 04:42.160 --> 04:44.720 real power is hard to pin down. 04:44.720 --> 04:49.040 The last king to unite part of them  was killed in an earlier Arab raid. 04:49.040 --> 04:53.920 But now many Imazighen regroup around  an unexpected new leader – a warrior 04:53.920 --> 04:57.920 queen of immense authority in the Aurès mountains. 04:57.920 --> 05:00.560 Some say she is the old king’s mother. 05:00.560 --> 05:03.600 Others whisper she can see the future. 05:03.600 --> 05:05.206 Her name is Dihya. 05:07.920 --> 05:09.763 The River of Sufferings 05:11.000 --> 05:19.280 Hassan's army fills the horizon from end to end, an endless column of horses, camels and infantry. 05:19.280 --> 05:25.920 In this motley crew, Persians ride back-to-back  with Coptic Egyptians, and all sorts of others. 05:25.920 --> 05:29.840 Some are drawn by faith, some by pay and plunder, 05:29.840 --> 05:34.320 and many simply by the Arab  Empire’s sheer success. 05:34.320 --> 05:36.480 Many Imazighen tribesmen who had suffered   05:36.480 --> 05:40.160 under Byzantine rule are now  betting on the rising power. 05:40.160 --> 05:43.600 Among the Arabs, each clan is  riding under its own banner, 05:43.600 --> 05:47.360 bound together by rivalry as much as shared faith. 05:47.360 --> 05:50.640 They look toward the forested  slopes of the Aurès Mountains 05:50.640 --> 05:56.240 and see a land handed to them by God. But the mountains are looking back. 05:56.240 --> 06:00.480 Dihya has been watching the dust  cloud of Hassan's army for days, 06:00.480 --> 06:03.600 or perhaps, she had seen them in a vision. 06:03.600 --> 06:07.760 She descends with a coalition of  thousands of Imazighen horsemen, 06:07.760 --> 06:13.600 their heads shaven for battle, except  for long scalplocks marking their clans. 06:13.600 --> 06:20.000 The two worlds meet at the banks of a river,  probably near Meskiana in present-day Algeria. 06:20.000 --> 06:25.040 Hassan barks an order: archers drop  to one knee, behind them spearmen 06:25.040 --> 06:29.760 drive their weapons into the ground and  level their points forwards like a fence. 06:29.760 --> 06:32.320 Dihya’s riders break into a gallop. 06:32.320 --> 06:38.480 Her strategy: overwhelm the Arabs  in one furious attack or die trying. 06:38.480 --> 06:44.720 Arrows tear into them and some go down tumbling  in the dust, but the charge does not slow. 06:44.720 --> 06:49.760 Their javelins slam into the enemy ranks,  snapping men backward off their feet.  06:49.760 --> 06:53.680 The Arab cavalry surges out and  they clash with the Imazighen, 06:53.680 --> 06:56.400 trampling warriors into the riverbank mud. 06:56.400 --> 07:00.720 Hassan drives forward flanked  by his elite Syrian forces, 07:00.720 --> 07:07.200 but then she appears, her hair flowing  like a dark banner: the warrior-queen. 07:07.200 --> 07:12.880 A roar moves through her ranks, and men who  were falling back turn and charge again. 07:12.880 --> 07:18.720 Their spears punch through cloth and  flesh, and their sling-stones smash faces. 07:18.720 --> 07:21.520 Men who have defeated armies from Persia to Egypt 07:21.520 --> 07:25.520 now run for their lives, leaving  hundreds of bodies in the river. 07:25.520 --> 07:30.320 Hassan and his army flee east and do not  stop until they reach modern day Libya, 07:30.320 --> 07:33.280 almost two thousand kilometers away. 07:33.280 --> 07:38.720 Disgraced, the Arabs call the site of their  destruction “the river of sufferings”. 07:38.720 --> 07:43.520 Dihya takes eighty prisoners, but  releases all except Khalid ibn Yazid, 07:43.520 --> 07:48.400 whom she adopts – maybe for his  bravery, maybe for his beauty. 07:48.400 --> 07:52.800 Some say she makes it official through  a shared meal with her two other sons. 07:52.800 --> 07:56.960 Folklore tells us she seals  the adoption by breastfeeding. 07:56.960 --> 08:01.920 Dihya's victory does not just stop  Hassan for now, it's a disaster. 08:01.920 --> 08:06.000 While he’s waiting for orders,  the Byzantines retake Carthage. 08:06.000 --> 08:10.240 For a brief moment Arab power in the  Maghreb is about to collapse almost 08:10.240 --> 08:12.165 as quickly as it had appeared. 08:13.132 --> 08:19.120 And it is said that Dihya rises higher than ever, as more and more Imazighen tribes rally around her. 08:19.120 --> 08:23.680 She has proven the Arab Empire can be  beaten, and standing with her is the 08:23.680 --> 08:26.273 best way to stay free – for now. 08:23.680 --> 08:26.022 And now back into the desert! 08:28.935 --> 08:30.098 The Last Stand  08:31.415 --> 08:35.975 About five years later the people  in Carthage experience a déjà vu. 08:35.975 --> 08:40.695 Out at sea, a massive fleet  appears – general Hassan is back. 08:40.695 --> 08:45.735 The Byzantine ships take one look  and flee, and the city empties again. 08:45.735 --> 08:50.615 To make sure they can never return, Hassan  reportedly tears down the walls, fills the 08:50.615 --> 08:55.655 harbor with rubble and starts building  the new city of Tunis right next to it. 08:55.655 --> 08:58.935 After first arriving more  than 800 years ago, Rome's 08:58.935 --> 09:05.255 political domination in Africa is finally over. There is only one person standing between Hassan 09:05.255 --> 09:11.335 and the rest of the Maghreb: Dihya, the sorceress. She makes a desperate calculation. 09:11.335 --> 09:14.055 The tribes around her may  not stay united for long, 09:14.055 --> 09:18.855 and the Arabs have been raiding North Africa  for decades before trying to conquer it. 09:18.855 --> 09:24.455 If the region's wealth keeps pulling them in, the  only way to stop them is to destroy that wealth. 09:24.455 --> 09:26.775 She orders a scorched-earth campaign, 09:26.775 --> 09:30.935 burning orchards and crops and  destroying towns and fortresses. 09:30.935 --> 09:35.895 She only thinks about the enemy, and not  about the people she's supposed to defend. 09:35.895 --> 09:41.495 As they watch their homes and harvests  go up in flames, respect turns to fury. 09:41.495 --> 09:47.575 Thousands abandon Dihya for the Arab side,  and she is left ruling nothing but ash. 09:47.575 --> 09:49.175 But we should be careful. 09:49.175 --> 09:54.295 The earliest written accounts of Dihya come  from Arab historians more than 150 years 09:54.295 --> 10:00.615 after her death and they had every incentive to  portray her as cruel to justify the conquest. 10:00.615 --> 10:05.255 Some modern historians suggest that the  Arabs themselves may have done the burning 10:05.255 --> 10:10.855 and blamed her, while she destroyed only  key parts to create a defensive buffer.  10:10.855 --> 10:16.135 Still, by the time Hassan returns,  Dihya’s power seems to be fading. 10:16.135 --> 10:19.335 Worse, betrayal reached her own family. 10:19.335 --> 10:23.655 According to legend, her adopted Arab  prisoner Khalid is said to have passed 10:23.655 --> 10:28.855 messages to Hassan for some time, hidden in  bread or tucked into the knob of a saddle. 10:28.855 --> 10:34.295 So when the two sides meet again,  Hassan is no longer riding blind. 10:34.295 --> 10:37.015 This time, Dihya’s forces are broken and 10:37.015 --> 10:40.455 Hassan drives her back to her  stronghold in the mountains. 10:40.455 --> 10:46.615 And there, legends say, she has the vision of  her own death that her sons watch in horror. 10:46.615 --> 10:49.735 But for them, she predicts a different fate. 10:49.735 --> 10:54.535 Turning to Khalid she says: “I have  adopted you for a day such as this one. 10:54.535 --> 10:59.173 I am dying, and I would recommend that you  take good care of your two brothers.” 10:59.173 --> 11:04.935 She tells her sons to go to Hassan, sue for  peace and convert to Islam – and predicts 11:04.935 --> 11:10.135 their bright future among the Arabs. When Hassan’s forces finally close in, 11:10.135 --> 11:14.535 a merciless battle follows, and  both sides suffer heavy losses. 11:14.535 --> 11:20.455 The exact year is unclear, but probably  in the late 690s, Dihya is killed. 11:20.455 --> 11:24.375 She fights without fear,  knowing how her story would end. 11:24.375 --> 11:27.454 But the story of her people is far from over. 11:30.114 --> 11:31.603 The Eternal Queen  11:32.775 --> 11:36.295 With Dihya gone, resistance begins to break apart. 11:36.295 --> 11:40.615 Under Hassan's successor, many  Imazighen convert to Islam. 11:40.615 --> 11:44.535 They join the Arab armies in enormous  numbers, as they push farther west 11:44.535 --> 11:51.175 until even Tangier falls under Arab rule. By 711 their joint forces cross into Spain 11:51.175 --> 11:58.295 and at its peak around 730, the Umayyad Caliphate  stretches from Iberia to the borders of India. 11:58.295 --> 12:01.655 It's the largest empire the world has ever seen. 12:01.655 --> 12:06.613 But the Imazighen are treated badly under  the new order, and twenty years later 12:06.613 --> 12:11.735 a massive uprising shatters the Maghreb  into many independent Muslim states. 12:11.735 --> 12:16.215 The pattern remains: By the time European  colonization arrives in the 19th century, 12:16.215 --> 12:20.935 the tribes of the Aurès Mountains revolt  against the French multiple times. 12:20.935 --> 12:25.975 When the war for Algerian independence  ignites in 1954, the first shots are 12:25.975 --> 12:31.655 fired in the mountains of the warrior-queen. It seems as if Dihya’s spirit is immortal. 12:31.655 --> 12:33.495 But it's more complicated. 12:33.495 --> 12:37.095 For 1300 years, she has been  reflecting the viewpoints of 12:37.095 --> 12:39.895 whoever tells her story like a mirror. 12:39.895 --> 12:42.535 In medieval times, Arab historians portrayed 12:42.535 --> 12:46.615 her as a ruthless queen whose  downfall was entirely justified. 12:46.615 --> 12:49.575 French colonial writers used her  to claim that they were actually 12:49.575 --> 12:52.535 saving the Imazighen from Arab oppression. 12:52.535 --> 12:56.215 And some Jewish writers claimed  her as a heroic Jewish queen, 12:56.215 --> 13:01.895 despite her religion being somewhat unknowable. Now for some of the tens of millions of 13:01.895 --> 13:07.735 Imazighen living today, Dihya has become a  symbol of indigenous pride and resistance. 13:07.735 --> 13:13.495 Her face shows up as graffiti, people name  their daughters after her, and in 2003 she 13:13.495 --> 13:19.975 even got a statue in northeastern Algeria – her  arm raised in a gesture of eternal rebellion. 13:19.975 --> 13:26.135 This is what legends do: They turn complicated  history into a clear, powerful story. 13:26.135 --> 13:32.171 The version you choose to believe probably says  less about Dihya herself than it does about you.