Ceramics from the late Roman and Byzantine era have been found.[5]
According to tradition, Hadatha was one of the "Al-Hija" villages named after Emir Hussam al-Din Abu al-Hija.[6] Abu al-Hija ("the Daring") was a Kurdish commander that partook in Sultan Saladin's conquest (1187–93) of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. He was renowned for his bravery, and commanded the garrison of Acre at the time of the Siege of Acre (1189–1192).[6]
Abu al-Hija apparently returned to Iraq, but several members of his family remained in the country under orders from Saladin, and these family members settled on large tracts of land that they were given in the Carmel region, in the Lower, Eastern and Western Galilee, and in the Hebron Highlands.[6] Self-proclaimed kinsmen of al-Hija settled in the villages of Hadatha and Sirin in the Lower Galilee, and Ruweis and Kawkab in the Western Galilee. By tradition the descendants today still claim to be blood relations of al-Hija.[6]
Victor Guérin, who visited in 1875, noted: "Some of the houses, which are still inhabited, have been constructed of good cut stones taken from some old buildings and mixed with small materials. On the slopes of the hill are found some ten shafts of columns lying scattered about the ground. They are the remains of a monument totally destroyed".[11][12]
In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described El Hadetheh as: "Stone village, containing 250 Moslems, on cultivated plain, growing barley, etc. No trees or gardens near. Good spring of water and cisterns in the village".[13] They further noted that there was a "Spring on south-east side; good supply of water, perennial; a small stream flowing from it in winter and spring."[14]
A population list from about 1887 showed el Hadatheh to have about 1,100 inhabitants; all Muslims.[15]
By the 1945 statistics, the village population was 520 Muslims,[2] and the total land area was 10,310 dunams (10.31 km2; 3.98 sq mi).[3] 199 dunams (0.199 km2; 0.077 sq mi) were irrigated or used for orchards, 8,379 dunams (8.379 km2; 3.235 sq mi) were used for cereals,[18] and 38 dunams (0.038 km2; 0.015 sq mi) were built-up (urban) land.[19]
In 1992, it was noted that though there were no settlements on village land, the inhabitants of Kefar Qish were cultivating the surrounding lands.[21] A number of Hadatha's dispossessed inhabitants resettled in Tamra, near Acre, during the 1950s.[22]
^Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 187. As given in Khalidi, 1992, p. 517.
^Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6Archived 2019-04-20 at the Wayback Machine writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9.
^22 households, according to Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 187.
