The current village was covering as of 2016 the slopes surrounding an ancient khirba (ruined village), Khirbet et-Taiybeh.[4] The ancient village only covered the southern slope of a hill and the ravine to its south.[4] Excavations indicate that it was mainly active in the Late Roman,[4]Byzantine,[4][5] and Medieval periods,[4] with lesser findings from the Persian, Early Muslim and Ottoman periods.[4]
Zertal writes that after no mention of the village in Medieval sources, a "Tayyiba" of six Muslim households appears in the Ottoman census of 1596, but he found no proof that this is the same settlement as the future Khirbet et-Taiybeh, known today as al-Tayba.[4] Hütteroth and Abdulfattah also mention the 1596 tax register with "Tayyiba" being part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Sha'ara under the liwa' (district) of Lajjun, with a population of 6 Muslim households.[6] The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, beehives and/or goats, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 3,500 akçe.[6]
Al-Tayiba began as a small dependency of the so-called "Fahmawi Commonwealth" established by Hebronite clans belonging to Umm al-Fahm. The Commonwealth consisted of a network of interspersed communities connected by ties of kinship, and socially, economically and politically affiliated with Umm al Fahm. The Commonwealth dominated vast sections of Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, Wadi 'Ara and Marj Ibn 'Amir/Jezreel Valley during that time.[7]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village, as Tayibat Umm al-Fahm (with a classifier after the major neighboring village) in the nahiya of Shafa al-Gharby.[8]
