[1] In 1596 Ma'ariya appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jawlan Sharqi in the Qada of Hauran.

[2] In 1884, American archaeologist Gottlieb Schumacher described Ma'ariya (which he spelled 'M'arri') as an "uninhabited spot, where there are scattered ruins of considerable extent, but no remains of archaeological interest".

[3] He noted it laid just east of Arqub al-Rahwa, which called the presumed Biblical Argob, and that both sites were built on the same hill shoulder.

The name 'M'arri' was that of a Muslim saintly figure buried in a close-by cavernous area underneath a terebinth tree.

Bedouins from the local Manadhira tribe grew tobacco, grain and vegetables on the slopes by the site.