In 1596 Ya'bad appeared in the Ottomantax registers as being in the nahiya of Jabal Sami in the liwa of Nablus. It had a population of 62 households, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, occasional revenues, goats and beehives, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 18,085 akçe. Half of the revenue went to a waqf dedicated to Halil ar-Rahman.[7] In 1694, Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, a Muslim traveler, passed by Ya'bad and noted it as "a village between Jenin and Arrabeh".[8]
In the 17th-18th centuries, Ya'bad was well known for producing the best cheese in Jabal Nablus. Politically it was ruled by the Qadri clan allied with the powerful Abd al-Hadi clan.[9] In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Ya'bud, located in the esh–Sha'rawiyeh esh–Shurkiyeh District.[10]
In 1870 Victor Guérin noted Ya'bad situated "on a hill",[11] while in the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (1882), Yabid was described as "a good-sized stone village, with some Christian families and two factions of Moslems, called respectively the 'Abd el Hady and the Beni Tokan, living in separate quarters. The village stands on a ridge, with a well to the south and a small separate quarter on the east, in which is a small Mukam."[12]
In 1935 the prominent Arab resistance leader Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and a few of his men were killed in a cave near Ya'bad during a firefight with the British.[15]
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 4,709 inhabitants in Ya'bad.[20]
Post-1967
Since the 1967 Six-Day War, Ya'bad has been under Israeli occupation. The population of Ya'bad in the 1967 census conducted by Israel was 4,857, of whom 581 originated from the Israeli territory.[21]
In May 1985 five village women set up a Women's Work Committee which opened a kindergarten for 60 children and started a sewing course with 32 young women.[22]
A major charcoal mine is located near Ya'bad and most of its workers come from the town.[23] Since the establishment of "closed-off areas" and the construction of the West Bank Barrier in the northern West Bank, Ya'bad and surrounding cities and towns have seen an increase in unemployment which reached to 88% in 2006. The annual average income has dropped "dramatically" by one-third according to the World Bank.[23]
Demography
Residents of Ya'bad originated from various locations, such as Egypt, Iraq, the area of Jerusalem, and neighboring villages.[24]
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 349