It is the administrative center of the Qatana Subdistrict, which contained 20 localities with a collective population of 147,451 in 2004.

In the early 13th-century, during Ayyubid rule, Yaqut al-Hamawi noted Katana as "one of the villages of Damascus".

[2] Tamerlane camped at Qatana during the siege of Damascus in 1400–1401;[3] hence, the region was called as "Wadi al-Ajam" afterwards.

[4] In October 1947, the Syrian army began using Qatana as a training camp in preparation for a conflict in Palestine.

[5] Syrian sources relayed to Reuters that on December 10, 2024, following the swift offensive attack and government takeover by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, Israeli forces entered the demilitarized zone and later reached the town, 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) inside Syria and 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Damascus.