Ottoman era

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Deir Abu Da'if as one of a range of villages round a height, the other villages being named as Beit Qad, Fuku'a, Deir Ghuzal and Araneh.^[6]

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.^[7]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly.^[8]

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."^[9]

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,^[10] where the Christians were all Orthodox,^[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 598; 593 Muslims and 5 Christians, with 136 houses.^[12]

In 1944/5 statistics the population was 850, all Muslims,^[13] with a total of 12,906 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.^[14] Of this, 1,919 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 4,836 dunams were for cereals,^[15] while 30 dunams were built-up (urban) land.^[16]

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.^[17]

Post-1967

Deir Abu Da'if has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Six-Day War.