They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, fruits, and cotton.

Taxes was also paid goats, beehives, orchards, and a press that was used either for processing olives or grapes; a total of 16,250 Akçe.

[13] Victor Guérin visited in 1875, and "discovered the ruins of a rectangular edifice built of cut stones, and oriented from west to east.

[17] In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the population of Sjajara was 543 residents; 391 Muslims, 100 Jews, and 52 Christians.

[24] During the 1948 War, the Arab Liberation Army defending al-Shajara battled Israeli forces in the village in early March.

[25] It was captured by Israel on May 6, 1948, by the 12th Battalion, Golani Brigade — the entire population fled leaving twenty dead.

[26][4][27] The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the place in 1992: "The ruins of houses and broken steel bars protrude from beds of wild vegetation.

Cattle barns belonging to the nearby settlement of Ilaniyya stand on the southern and eastern sides of the site.