Beginning sometime in the Middle Ages, Dhat al-Hajj served as a rest stop and watering place on the Hajj caravan route connecting Egypt and Syria to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

[1] The Maghrebi traveler Ibn Batutah mentions the site about a century later, during Mamluk rule (1260–1517), while performing his Hajj, noting that it consisted of "two shallow wells with water from below but no building".

[2] Syrian historian Abu'l-Fida noted that in 1313, Dhat al-Hajj was the site of an attack by Banu Lam tribesmen against a group of merchants heading for Tabuk to trade with Muslim pilgrims returning to Syria.

In 1559, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had forts built at Dhat al-Hajj and other way-stations on the Hajj route, namely al-Qatranah, Ma'an and Tabuk.

[4] The Sufi traveler Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi passed Dhat al-Hajj during his 1694 pilgrimage and noted that it had a reservoir guarded by troops from Syria.

[3] Two years later, the Sufi traveler Murtada al-Alawan described the building as having been destroyed by the Bedouin tribesmen and reported that the amir al-hajj (caravan commander) climbed its ruined walls and announced his intention to rebuild the fort.

[3] The Banu Sakhr and its allies launched a massive raid in 1757 against the Hajj caravan near Dhat al-Hajj, and at al-Qatranah and Al-'Ula, during which 20,000 pilgrims were killed or died of thirst or starvation.