 Robinson visited the village in 1838, noting that it was "a large village, or rather town, on the slope of the range of hills", and that there was a tower in the village with the "appearance of antiquity".The village was placed in the "esh-Sharawiyeh esh-Shurkiyeh" (the Eastern) district, north of Nablus.In 1851, Jaba's inhabitants issued a complaint to Hafiz Pasha, the governor of Jerusalem, accusing the Jarrar sheikhs of the village of forcing them to sign promissory notes about selling their future olive oil (a total of 2,600 jars within two years) to the sheikhs at a reduced price.