[7] Medieval geographers from the 10th century wrote that the city was fair-sized, attached to Urmia, fertile and having good pasture.

Kurds from the Hadhabani tribe would settle in the area during the summer, pasture their livestock and sell their products for manufactures and textiles from the city.

Ali ibn al-Athir wrote in 1205/6 that Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr of the Eldiguzids handed over the city to the ruler of Maragheh ʿAlāʾ-al-Din Qara Sonqor.

Mustawfi described the city as being Sunni, in a rural district of 120 villages and producing a total revenue worth 19,300 dinars annually.

[7] When Sheikh Ubeydullah and his forces advanced from Ottoman Hakkari towards Urmia, he captured Oshnavieh and made it his capital until he was defeated in 1880.