Others believe that their origins go back to the Crusaders who came to Jerusalem with Richard I of England in the 12th century AD, due to the fact that many of them have blond hair and blue eyes.
Members of the family and some other historians hold the view that the clan originally came from the Arabian Peninsula.
[1] The churches of Jerusalem also paid an annual one-off tax to the Abu Ghoshes for their visitors.
[1] According to tradition, any pilgrim or visitor to the holy sites passing through Abu Ghosh had to pay their respects to the Scheich.
Some visitors to the holy lands wrote about Lady Stanhope (daughter of a British Lord, niece of the British Prime Minister William Pitt and a relative of Sir Sidney Smith who besieged Napoleon in Akko and had correspondence with the Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh) that when she visited Jerusalem in 1811 she stopped in Abu Ghosh to pay her respects to the Scheich.
Scheich Ibrahim AbuGhosh found her an interesting woman, and he ordered a formal dinner and spent the night in her company.
[1] The Ottoman Empire introduced reforms abolishing the feudal system and creating a centralized government with its main location in the Turkish capital.
Powers were transferred from feudal families to a Turkish governor representing the Sultan, sitting in the city of Jerusalem.
He was known to have founded a "Sabeel", offering water and a resting place for free to travellers passing through on their way to Jerusalem.
He married the daughter of a Turkish General in the Ottoman army who had his residence in the village of al-Qubab.
He offered unlimited financial and military help to the Palestinian militants in order to fight the British.