[4] In 1265, after the Mamluks had defeated the Crusaders, Iktaba (Sabahiya) was mentioned among the estates which Sultan Baibars granted his followers.

[5] Iktaba was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers under the name of Staba, being in the Nahiya of Qaqun 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" and a press for olive oil or grapes; a total of 4,100 akçe.

[6] In 1870, the French explorer Victor Guérin noted that village, which he called Astaba, was a "Small hamlet located on a high hill.

[9] In the 1931 census of Palestine, the combined population of Anabta, Iktaba and Nur ash Shams was 2498; 2,457 Muslims, 34 Christians and 1 Druze living in 502 houses.