In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it was noted as Madama, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal, part of Nablus Sanjak. The population was 36 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 6,250 akçe.[4]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.[5]
In the 1945 statistics Madama had a population of 290 Muslims[9] and a total of 3,361 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[10] Of this, 162 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,943 used for cereals,[11] while 30 dunams were built-up land.[12]
After the 1995 accords, 62 % of Madama land was defined as Area B, while the remaining 32% was defined as Area C. Israel has confiscated 139 dunams of land from Madama in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar.[14]
In 2006, an incident occurred in Madama in which neighbouring Israeli settlers both "poisoned the village's only well and shot at aid workers who came to clean it."[15]
In May 2017, Israeli settlers, apparently from Yitzhar, attacked a Palestinian shepherd from Madama. The Palestinian was "bleeding profusely", and was sent to a hospital in Nablus. The Israeli soldiers "fired in the air, dispersing the assailants", but none of the attackers were arrested.[16]
In April 2018, Israeli soldiers were filmed "cheering after shooting unarmed Palestinian with rubber bullets" by a roadblock by Madama.[17]
In May 2019, it was reported that Israeli settlers from Yitzhar had started razing and levelling Palestinian-owned agricultural lands in Madama, in order to make a settler-only road.[18]
In September 2019, settlers from Yitzhar stormed the southern part of Madama and set fire to olive trees.[19]
