Abū Ja'far Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Aḥmad ibn 'Amirah al-Dhabbī (Arabic: أبو جعفر أحمد بن يحيى بن أحمد بن عميرة الضبيّ) an historian and encyclopedist-biographer of al-Andalus who lived at the end of the twelfth-century during the period of Islamic hegemony in Spain.
What is known of the author's life is drawn from the text of his published work.
He says nothing about his country, but we believe that he was born in the village of Velez where he lived with his grandfather Ahmed, and that Ahmed ibn Abd 'l-Malik ibn Amirah was a cousin of Yahya, the author's father.
[1] Adh-Dhabbi travelled to many regions of Spain and Africa, visiting the cities of Ceuta in Spain, and Alexandria in Egypt, where he found welcome among literary circles.
[2] Along his travels he met the philologist Abd al-Ḥaqq el-Ishbīli in Béjaïa, and fellow encyclopedist-biographer, Abu Ṭāhir Ibn 'Auf in Alexandria.