[3] Nearby localities include Kafr Yahmul to the north, Zardana and Maarrat al-Ikhwan to the northeast, Taftanaz to the east, Ta'um, Binnish, al-Fu'ah and Kafriya to the southeast, Idlib to the south, and Hafasraja to the southwest.

[4] According to medieval Muslim geographers al-Muqaddasi and Abu'l-Fida, the town was originally called in Arabic “Maʾarrat Qinnasrīn” in reference to Jund Qinnasrin, the province to which it belonged.

[3][6] Ma'arat Misrin was captured by the Muslim army of Abu Ubaidah ibn al Jarrah in 637 CE after defeating a Byzantine force in the Battle of Hazir between the town and Aleppo.

During the offensive Mirdasid commander Abu Mansur Sulayman ibn Tawk captured Ma'arrat Misrin and imprisoned its governor.

Later, before 1063, the Byzantines recaptured the town after Salih’s son Atiyya defected from his nephew Mahmud ibn Nasr's army, which was attacking Baalbek.

[7] However, after the capture of Baldwin I of Edessa, the Muslim inhabitants of Ma'arat Misrin and nearby al-Fu'ah and Sarmin revolted against their Crusader rulers in 1104, inflicting heavy casualties against their troops.

In the early 20th century, American archaeologist Robert Garrett noted that the town's soil was "unusually fertile" and that there was an abundance of fig trees.

[10] In the early period of French Mandate rule, Ma'arrat Misrin was the center of a nahiya ("subdistrict") in the larger district of Aleppo.

[4] On 12 December 2011 opposition activists claimed the Syrian Army "indiscriminately" killed eleven people in the town and nearby Kafr Yahmul.

The incident began when soldiers allegedly shot dead two civilians in Ma'arrat Misrin prompting residents to block the main road leading to the villages.

[13] In December 2012, a kidnapped NBC News team was held hostage in a chicken farm near Ma'arrat Misrin controlled by FSA-aligned rebel group North Idlib Falcons Brigade.