It is located in the Lower Galilee in the Northern District, within Sakhnin valley, adjacent to Sakhnin and Deir Hanna, and climbing a bit on Yodfat range to its south, while also owning some lands south of that in the Beit Netofa Valley (Sahl al-Battuf) to the north of Nazareth area.

[2] During the Roman period, Arraba was a Jewish settlement known as Arab or Gabara, and was home to the priestly family of Petahiah.

The Arab Muslim tribe of Zayadina arrived in Arraba in the middle of the 17th century and later gained control of the town.

[13] Arabba is home to the grave of Hanina ben Dosa, a Jewish scholar who lived in the village during the first and second generations after the destruction of the Second Temple.

[9] In the 13th century, Arrabah is mentioned by Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his famous work Mu'jam al-Buldān (1224–1228), as a "place in the province of Acca".

[21][22] The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 Arraba appeared in the tax registers as being in the Nahiya ("Subdistrict") of Tabariyya, part of Sanjak Safad.

The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, summer crops or fruit trees, cotton, and goats or beehives; a total of 11,720 akçe.

Sallama and other Druze villages in the vicinity were subsequently destroyed, Druze suzerainty over the Shaghur district came to an end and the Zayadina consequently gained significant influence in the area, including the role of tax collector of Shaghur on behalf of the Ottoman wali ("governor") of Sidon Province.

He won the support of the local sheikh, Muhammad Nasser, by helping him settle a score with a neighboring village, which set off a series of campaigns that led to the conquest of the entire Galilee.

[28] In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Arrabet al Buttauf as "A large stone-built village, containing about 1,000 Moslems and Christians, and surrounded by groves of olives and arable land.

In the late 2010s, Arraba native and Harvard graduate, Nuseir Yassin, gained international acclaim with his Nas Daily videos.

Throughout history Arraba was mostly an agricultural village depending mainly on the al-Batuf Plain (Hebrew name: Beit Netofa Valley) to grow crops.

[citation needed] Arraba houses the tomb of Hanina Ben Dosa, a Jewish scholar and miracle worker who lived in the first century CE.

The ash-Sheikh Dabus shrine is located 50 meters away from Hanina Ben Dosa's tomb, within the cemetery belonging to the Na'amneh and Hatib families.

[28] Andrew Petersen, an archaeologist specializing in Islamic architecture, surveyed the place in 1994, and found several interesting buildings.