Byzantine period and association with Lot Biblical scholar
Edward Robinson identified the site with the
Latin placename
Caphar Barucha () mentioned by
Jerome (fl. around 400) in connection with
Abraham and
Lot. The name Caphar Barucha sometimes appears in literature in the form Caparbaricha.
Euthymius the Great established a monastery at Caparbaricha in 422; it is likely the ruins at
Ein el-Skhaniya. Several
Byzantine period stones that had been
reused in later structures have been found in the village. One is embedded in the mosque's surrounding wall and bears a broken cross. The mosque has possibly replaced an earlier church.
Early Muslim to Mamluk periods Following the
Muslim conquest of the Levant, the name of the village eventually took the Arabic form , or in its
vernacular form or .
Ottoman period Kafr Burayk was included in the Ottoman
tax registers of 1596, where it was listed in the of Khalil (Hebron) of the of
Quds (Jerusalem). It had a population of 42 Muslim households who paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, vineyards or fruit trees, grape syrup or molasses, and goats or beehives; a total of 10,500
akçe. The first known mention of the name 'Bani Na'im' was by the Muslim traveler
Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi in 1690. He noted that its homes were "built of large hewn stones" and that the inhabitants, like other peasants in the area, lived in the houses in autumn and winter and took up abode in tents and caves in the spring to tend their flocks and cultivate their grain fields. When the French traveler
Victor Guérin visited in 1860, he found the village almost deserted since the population had left to live in tents as nomads to avoid military conscription. He found them living in a tent village one kilometer away, ready to flee to the desert if an attempt was made to enlist them. The town was a major supplier of sand for the
Hebron glass industry.
British Mandate after battling
Palestinian Arab irregulars in Bani Na'im during the
1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine In 1924, under British Mandatory rule, the first government school in Bani Na'im was founded. It joined the
1936–39 Arab revolt as the site of a battle between the irregular Palestinian Arab forces of
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and the
British Army. Palestinian Arab irregulars led by al-Husayni and his local deputy, Abd al-Halim Jawlani, battled the British Army in Bani Na'im in December 1938. According to British military accounts, a resident of Bani Na'im called for intervention when the rebels entered the town. The British promptly confronted a force of 100 irregulars. With
British Air Force assistance, al-Husayni's troops dispersed and fled east of Bani Na'im where they were pinned down. British forces killed 60 rebels and captured 15. One British soldier was killed.
1948 war and Jordanian annexation In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Bani Na'im came under
Jordanian rule. ==1967 war and aftermath==