Yahia Ben Rabbi
Yahia Ben Rabbi was a Portuguese nobleman. He was reputed to be a direct descendant of the Hebrew exilarchs of ancient Babylonia that claimed direct descent from the Biblical King David and was the eponymous progenitor of the Ibn Yahya family.
Ben Rabbi was the son of Yaish Ibn Yahya and grandson of Hiyya al-Daudi, who was a prominent rabbi, composer, and poet and served as advisor to Afonso II of Portugal. He was also said to be the son of Châmoa Gomes de Pombeiro, though there is little evidence to support this. Ben Rabbi was also known as Yahia o Negro, it being a cognomen he inherited from his father, who himself gained it from being made Lord of the town of Aldeia dos Negros, near Óbidos.
Ben Rabbi had five sons with his wife:
- Yaish Ben Yahya, the father of three sons, Yosef, Shlomo, and Moshe.
- Yakov Ben Yahya, the father of Hiyya, the father of Eli
- Yosef Ben Yahya, the father of Shlomo Ha-Zaken, the father of three sons, who were: Yosef, Gedaliah, and Hiyya
- Yehuda "Sar" Ben Yahya, father of Yahya and Yosef
- Yahia Ben Yahi, father of Shlomo, Joseph, and Bakr Ben Yahya