[1] Archaeological excavations east of the village have revealed flint from the Mousterian culture, several knapped using the Levallois technique.

[4] In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as Um al-Ganam, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya, part of Safad Sanjak.

They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley and summer crops, in addition to occasional revenues, and goats and beehives; a total of 1,910 akçe.

"[8] In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Umm al Ghanam had a population of 52, all Muslims.

Hassan Saida of Shibli–Umm Al-Ghanam owns a collection of small cast lead books featuring what is believed to be the first-ever portrait of Jesus.