[1] The lands of 'Arraba include Khirbet al-Hamam and Tel el-Muhafer, either of which believed to be the site of the Canaanite town Arubboth from the Books of Kings (Rubutu in the Egyptian documents) and the city Narbata of the Roman period.

The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, that was 17,040 akçe on wheat, 1,500 on barley, 2,683 for summer crops, 1,500 for olive trees, 1,000 for occasional revenues, 1,000 for goats and beehives, 30 for an olive oil press, 3,840 for adat rijaliyya (=customary tax on subjects (only for Muslims in Nablus Sanjak); a total of 29,575 akçe.

[10] In 1648-50 the Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi noted the village contained 100 Muslim houses and that its taxes were allocated to the governor of Nablus.

In the 1850s the Ottoman rulers withdrew their soldiers from the district (to be used in the Crimean War), and hence open hostility ensued between the different Palestinian factions.

[16][17] In April 1859 a coalition of Ottoman troops and local leaders opposed to the Abd al-Hadi clan, stormed Arraba.

This wall is now in great part destroyed, having been overthrown in a siege sustained some years ago during a revolt against the Caimacam of Nablus".

[21] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Arraba as "a very large village on the south slope of a ridge, the northern houses on high ground.

The holy tomb of ash-Sheikh 'Arabil is located within a cave under the minbar of the town's central mosque, constructed in 1819 by Hussein 'Abd al-Hadi.

Al-Nabulsi, visiting in 1690 and referring to the site as "a-Nebi A'arabl," recorded that he was a descendant of Jacob and mentioned an ornate structure with a remarkable dome present at the time.