[1] Biblical scholar Edward Robinson identified the site with Caphar Barucha, meaning 'Village of Benediction' in Hebrew, mentioned by Saint Jerome (fl.

[2] Jerome wrote that Saint Paula, departing from Hebron, stopped at the height of Caphar Barucha and looked upon the surrounding region, remembering Lot and his sin.

[6] Along with the town of Dura, Kafr Burayk became a part of the waqf (endowment) for the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron on orders from the Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, al-Mu'azzam Isa, on 2 May 1215.

[5] The 15th-century Muslim geographer al-Suyuti also acknowledged that Lot was buried in Kafr Burayk and that in a cave west of the village, beneath an old mosque, laid "sixty prophets of whom twenty were Apostles".

He noted that Lot's tomb was a site of "visitation and veneration from ancient times, the men of the age succeeding those who have gone before".

[6] Kafr Burayk was included in the Ottoman tax registers of 1596, where it was listed in the Nahiya of Khalil (Hebron) of the Liwa of Quds (Jerusalem).

[7] It had a population of 42 Muslim households who paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vineyards or fruit trees, grape syrup or molasses, and goats or beehives; a total of 10,500 akçe.

[5] It received this name from the Bedouin tribe of Banu Nu'aym, also referred to as Bani Na'im, who settled there after migrating from the vicinity of Petra in Transjordan.

[5] The biblical scholar Edward Robinson visited Bani Na'im in 1838, noting that it was a village with a mosque, "lying on very high ground, to which the ascent is gradual on every side, forming a conspicuous object to all the region far and near".

[10] When the French traveler Victor Guérin visited in 1860, he found the village almost deserted since the population had left to live in tents as nomads to avoid military conscription.

[11] He found them living in a tent village one kilometer away, ready to flee to the desert if an attempt was made to enlist them.

In their second visit in 1881, the SWP described Bani Na'im as well-cultivated with abundant flocks that grazed in desert areas east of the town.

[15] In December 1937, British forces ordered the demolition of a house whose owners were accused of involvement in an anti-British incident near the town.

[16] Palestinian Arab irregulars led by al-Husayni and his local deputy, Abd al-Halim Jawlani, battled the British Army in Bani Na'im in December 1938.

According to British military accounts, a resident of Bani Na'im called for intervention when the rebels entered the town.

[17] Israeli scholar Hillel Cohen wrote that Fakhri Nashashibi, a political rival of al-Husayni, informed military authorities on three rebel units forcing Bani Na'im's largely pro-Nashashibi inhabitants to join the revolt.

With British Air Force assistance, al-Husayni's troops dispersed and fled east of Bani Na'im where they were pinned down.

[15] Both Bani Na'im and Hebron have grown massively during the late 20th century, practically merging into one inhabited area.

[5] In 1997, in the wake of the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, administrative control over Bani Na'im was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

[21] On August 31, 2010, four Israelis, two men and two women, were killed in a Hamas drive-by shooting on the road between Kiryat Arba and Bani Na'im.

[23] Bani Na'im houses the purported tomb of Lot, a prophet in Islam and a righteous person in Judaism and Christianity, in the center of the town.

The lintel of the mosque's northern gate is built from stones dating to the Byzantine era when a church had possibly stood.

[25] In 1322, writer Sir John Mandeville noted "two miles from Hebron, is the grave of Lot, Abraham's brother".

[5] Ibn Battuta noted in 1326 that the tomb was covered by a "fine building" made of white stone and without columns.

[25] Muslim writers al-Suyuti and Mujir ad-Din wrote in the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively, that Lot was buried in Bani Na'im.

[26] Islamic-era Kufic inscriptions on the front entrance to the mosque state that the Muslim scholar Abdullah bin Muhammad declared: … the hills, the plains, the buildings, the paths, the gardens, the trees and the passage that transverses it [Bani Na'im]" are an endowment "for the prophet Lot, the son of Haran brother of Ibrahim (Abraham), the friend of the Compassionate (Allah), may the blessings of Allah be upon them.

The restoration work was entrusted by him to Shams al-Din al-Ansari, a member of the prominent Ansari family which specialized in religious endowments.

[38][39] Under Jordanian rule, in 1952, the population surged to 5,778, partly due to large numbers of Palestinian refugees who settled in the town as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Later, the number of inhabitants declined due to the emigration of refugees from the town to other parts of the West Bank and Jordan.

[32] Decline in market demand combined with movement restrictions imposed by the Israeli military have led to a deterioration of the local economy, particularly in the trade and the stone-cutting industries.