In 1265, after the Mamluks had defeated the Crusaders, Iktaba (Sabahiya) was mentioned among the estates which Sultan Baibars granted his followers. The village was given to the emirAlam al-Din Tardaj al-Amadi.[5]
Ottoman era
Iktaba was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers under the name of Staba, being in the Nahiya of Qaqun of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 21 households, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues" and a press for olive oil or grapes; a total of 4,100 akçe.[6]
In 1870, the French explorer Victor Guérin noted that village, which he called Astaba, was a "Small hamlet located on a high hill. Ancient cisterns testify to the existence here of an ancient locality. Fig trees and pomegranates grow around the dwellings."[7]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as: "A place to which a certain effendi of Nablus comes down in spring, a sort of 'Azbeh or spring grazing-place for horses"[8]
In the 1945 statistics, the combined population of Anabta and Iktaba was 3,120; 3,080 Muslims and 40 Christians,[11] with a total of 15,445 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, a total of 5,908 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,842 were used for cereals,[13] while 84 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[14]
