Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as duhaniyya, located in the Nahiya of Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds. The population was 71 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards/fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 30,000 akçe.^[7][8][9] Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found.^[5]

In 1838, Edward Robinson described Deir Dibwan as being "tolerably wealthy", and reportedly the producer of great quantities of figs.^[10] It was noted as a Muslim village, located in the area immediately north of Jerusalem.^[11]

The Victor Guérin visited the village in July 1863, and described it as having five hundred inhabitants, situated on a rocky plateau. The highest point of the plateau was occupied by the remains of an old construction, which people referred to as Ed-Deir (the Monastery). He also note several cisterns dug into the rock, which he assumed dated from antiquity.^[12] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Der Diwan" had 161 houses and a population of 459, though the population count included only men.^[13][14]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Deir Diwan as a "large and well-built stone village, standing on flat ground, with a rugged valley to the north and open ground to the south. There are a few scattered olives round the place. The inhabitants are partly Christian."^[15]

In 1896 the population of Der Diwan was estimated to be about 1,338 persons.^[16]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the village, called Dair Dilwan, had a population of 1,382 Muslims,^[17] while in the 1931 census, the village had 384 occupied houses and a population of 1,688, still all Muslims.^[18]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 2,080 Muslims,^[19] while the total land area was 73,332 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.^[20] Of this, 5,052 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 10,695 for cereals,^[21] while 164 dunams were classified as built-up areas.^[22]

Jordanian era

In the wake the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Deir Dibwan came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

In 1961, the population of Deir Dibwan was 2,812.^[23]

1967–present

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Deir Dibwan has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 0.2% of the village land was classified as Area A, 16.8% as Area B, and the remaining 83% as Area C. Israel has confiscated about 1,287 dunums of land from Deir Dibwan in order to construct the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmas.^[24]