[1] In the 1596 tax records in the early Ottoman era, it was named as a village, Nabatiyya al-Fawqa, in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Sagif under the liwa' (district) of Safad.

The villagers paid 2,200 akçe in taxes on olive trees, 450 for "occasional revenues", 602 on goats and bee hives, 30 for an olive oil press, or a press for grape syrup, and 5000 as a fixed amount; a total of 8,276 akçe.

[2][3] In 1875, Victor Guérin described the village as being located on a hill, and having 500 Métualis inhabitants.

[4] On 16 April 1996, Israeli warplanes bombed an apartment in Nabatieh Fawka, killing nine people, seven of whom were children.

[5][6][7] In 2014 Muslims made up 98.60% of registered voters in Nabatieh al-Fawqa.