[4][5][6] Jewish scholars claim that during the Iron Age, Hajjah hosted inhabitants from the Israelite Tribe of Menashe.

[4] Magen identified Hajja with Kfar Hagai (כפר חגי), an ancient Samaritan village from the Hellenistic period.

[7][8] In later Samaritan sources, the village is referred to as "Kiryat Hagga (קרית חגה), the current Arabic name being a direct rendition.

The Tolidah, a Samaritan historical work, mentions a man named Geber Ben-Karmi of Kiryat Hagga.

[11] Hajja was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the nahiya of Bani Sa'b of the liwa of Nablus.

The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues", a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a tax for people of the Nablus region; a total of 19,200 akçe.

[15] In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted about Kuryet Hajja: "A good-sized village on high ground, supplied by wells.

Israel has also confiscated land from Hajja to build bypass roads and the Israeli West Bank barrier.

Moshe Sharon suggests that the saint's name may preserve the memory of Baba Rabba, a prominent Samaritan leader from the 4th century known for constructing a synagogue at Hajjah.