The village, not mentioned in 16th century
tax records, was likely established in the modern era, with its settlers coming from
Hebron. Ceramics from the
Byzantine era have been found here. The nearby village of 'Abba, deserted after the 16th century, is now settled by people from Deir Abu Daif. In 1870
Victor Guérin noted it as a small village, south of
Beit Qad, but less important than it. Guérin called the village for
Ed-Deir. In 1870/1871 (1288
AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the
nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly. In 1882 the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it: "A small village near the edge of the hills, on rising ground. The water supply is from
cisterns. Olive- gardens exist on the north. The houses are of
mud and stone."
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, the village had a population of 441; 434 Muslims and 7 Christians, where the Christians were all Orthodox, increasing in the
1931 census to 598; 593 Muslims and 5 Christians, with 136 houses. In
1944/5 statistics the population was 850, all Muslims, with a total of 12,906
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,919 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 4,836 dunams were for cereals, while 30 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian era After the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, Deir Abu Da'if came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,191 inhabitants.
Post-1967 Deir Abu Da'if has been under
Israeli occupation since the 1967
Six-Day War. ==References==