Nearby localities include Umm al-Mayazen and Nasib to the southeast, al-Naimah to the east, Ataman to the north, al-Yaduda to the northwest and Ramtha, Jordan, to the southwest.

It is referred to in the Hebrew Bible as Edrei or Edre'i (אֶדְרֶעִי),[6] the capital of Bashan, site of a battle where the Israelites defeated Og.

[20] Adhri'at's residents reportedly celebrated the arrival of the second caliph Umar when he visited the city, "dancing with swords and sweet basil.

"[19] Throughout Rashidun and Umayyad rule, the city served as the capital of the al-Bathaniyya subdistrict, part of the larger Jund Dimashq ("military district of Damascus.

[22] He claimed the city was part of the Jund al-Urdunn district and that its territory was "full of villages" and included the region of Jerash to the south of the Yarmouk River.

[22][23] Throughout the early Islamic period, it served as a strategic station on the Hajj caravan route between Damascus and Medina and as the gate to central Syria.

[24] In 1596 Daraa appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as ' Madinat Idra'a' and was part of the nahiya of Butayna (Bathaniyya) in the Hauran Sanjak.

[26] In 1838, Eli Smith listed Daraa as a Muslim, Catholic and Greek Orthodox village in the Nuqrah (southern Hauran plain), south of Eshmiskin.

During the Battle of Megiddo, Lawrence led the Arab Revolt in cutting the southern rail line at Mafraq, the northern at Tell Arar, and the western by Mezerib.

[24] After the Syrian Ba'ath Party gained power following the 1963 coup, the new interior minister Amin al-Hafiz appointed Abd al-Rahman al-Khlayfawi as governor of Daraa until 1965.

[32] Daraa had recently, before the Syrian Civil War, suffered from reduced water supply in the region and had been straining under the influx of internal refugees who were forced to leave their northeastern lands due to a drought exacerbated by the government's lack of provision.

[34] The uprising was sparked on 6 March 2011, when at least 15 youths were arrested and tortured for scrawling graffiti on their school wall denouncing the Assad government.

During this time the local courthouse, the Ba'ath party headquarters in the city, and the Syriatel building owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of President Assad, were set on fire.

[39] On 12 July 2018, the battle for Daraa ended after several days of intense clashes between the Syrian Army and rebel forces, some of which agreed to terms of reconciliation.