Abd al-Rahman I
Yahya was born in the area of Algeciras to the Banu Abi Isa family. His grandfather, Abu Isa Kathir, the epynomous of the family, was a Masmuda Berber soldier and a "mawla" of the Banu Layth of Kinana, thus the nisba "al-Laythi". Abd al-Rahman I rewarded Kathir by giving him the governorship of Algeciras, then Sidonia and later again Algeciras, where he died and was buried.