[3] Originally called Dajānah /[id-]Dəjāniyi, الدجانية/ in 16th century Ottoman documents, the surname Dajāni الدجاني is derived from it.

Roy Marom and Ran Zadok have shown that the initial /d/ was lost for assimilation of the silent /d/ with the /j/ [dj/ like in jāj < dəjāj < dajāj “chicken”.

[17][18] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A small village on high ground, with two Mukams and a well on the east; on the north is a modern graveyard.

[21] In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al-Janiya had a population of 180; 177 Muslims and 3 Orthodox Christians.

[35] By 2014, farming on local land was difficult, since Israeli authorities have declared much of it, enclosing olive groves, a 'closed military zone', which Palestinian farmers are allowed to access on average only two days a year, and many of the trees are uprooted by settlers.

[38] In the center of the village al-Janiya, housed within a mosque, lies the maqam (holy tomb) of ash-Sheikh Ahmed a-Dajani.

However, the tomb bears an inscription stating it was built in 1330, a date that does not align with the time of the saint, which according to Muslim sources, was buried in the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem in 1562.

[39] Al-Dajani's occupation involved overseeing trade convoys traveling from Fez in Morocco to Medina in the Arabian Peninsula.

Angered by the behavior of the local villagers towards the sheikh, the mukhtar declared that he would change the name of Dajjaniyya to the current name, al-Janiya.