Ottoman era

Dayr al-Hawa is not mentioned in 16th century records, and was likely first settled in a later period.^[6]

In 1838, Edward Robinson called it a "lofty" village, on the brink of a valley.^[7] It was further noted as a Muslim village, located in the District of el-Arkub, southwest of Jerusalem.^[8] In 1856 the village was named D. el Hawa on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.^[9]

Victor Guérin, visiting the village in 1863, wrote that Dayr al-Hawa "probably owes its name, monastery of the wind, to its high position".^[10]

An Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Der el-Hawa had 32 houses and a population of 103, though the population count included men, only.^[11][12]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a village standing high, on a knoll rising from a high ridge, with a deep valley to the north. It has several high houses in it. On the west is a good spring. The ground is covered with brushwood all round the place."^[13]

In 1896 the population of Der el-hawa was estimated to be about 162 persons.^[14]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted i by the British Mandate authorities, Dair al-Hawa had a population of 38 residents; all Muslims,^[15] increasing in the 1931 census to 47 inhabitants, in 11 houses.^[16]

In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 60 Muslims,^[4] with a total of 5,907 dunums of land.^[5] Of this, 58 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 1,565 for cereals,^[17] while 4 dunams were built-up land.^[18]

A mosque was located in the western part of the village and there was a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Sulayman. Near the ruins of the old village now stands the Israeli moshav, Nes Harim,^[19] however, it is not on village land. (It is on the land of Bayt 'Itab.)^[20]

During the 1948 it was defended by the local militia and the Egyptian Army/Muslim Brotherhood Battalion.^{[citation needed]}

• Dayr al-Hawa, Mandate survey, 1:20,000
• Dayr al-Hawa, 1945, 1:20,000