A century after Bat Zabbai rebelled against the Romans, a Saracen queen of the deserts did her one better. Although her people kept no written records, her story survives in oral tradition and song. Mavia, (Arabic: ماوية, Māwiyya; also transliterated Mawia, Mawai, or Mawaiy, and sometimes referred to as Mania) was an Arab warrior queen, who ruled over a confederation of semi-nomadic Arabs, in either southern Syria, or southern Palestine and northern Sinai, in the latter half of the 4th Century CE. Circa 375 CE, her husband al-Hawari, who was the king of the Tanukh tribe with Mavia as his co-regent, died. By the time she tangled with the Romans, she had already had to rebuff other male rulers who hoped to conquer a woman ruler’s lands easily. She became a force to be reckoned with and her cavalry had terrifying power on the battlefield. It is said that Mavia rode a horse very well and was a remarkable fighter.
When the Emperor Valens demanded auxiliary troops from her for his military campaigns in the area, her tribe responded with a revolt against the Roman Empire. She led her troops, riding at the head of her army into Phoenicia, Egypt and Palestine. The general of the Roman legions in Phoenicia, after confronting Mavia in battle, applied for assistance to the supreme commander of the eastern Roman army. Mavia responded to this threat by smashing the Romans in battle repeatedly. Rufinus says she laid provinces waste and “wore down the Roman army in frequent battles, killed many, and put the rest to flight” until the Romans sued for a safe retreat from her domains.
The Romans finally made a truce with her on conditions that she laid. According to the legends, she had met a native Saracen and Orthodox Christian hermit named Moses. She demanded that Moses be appointed bishop over her home area. Church records claim she converted to Christianity at this point, which infers that her tribe had not been Christian until after her peace was made with the Romans. To solidify the peace, Mavia married her daughter to Victor, a prominent military official under Valens, which put her in the center of the Roman-Byzantine administration. She must have proved a good ally, as the Romans later called upon her for assistance when being attacked by the Goths, to which she responded by sending a fleet of cavalry.
-excerpted from Archeology.org, ancient-origins.net, and the blog of https://amonamon2.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/arabian-queens/