Shabtin is located 14.4 kilometres (9 mi) north-west of Ramallah. Shabtin is bordered by Al Itihad to the east, Shuqba to the north, Ni'lin to the west, and Deir Qaddis to the south.[3]
Etymology
The name Šabtīn /Šibtīn/ is Aramaic, and means ““sticks, canes”.[4]
During the Crusader era, the area was a Crusader stronghold, centred around Aboud. Remains of a house from Crusader era have been identified in the centre of Shabtin.[9]
Sherds from the Mamluk era have been found in Shabtin, together with a hoard of 45 Mamluk gold coins.[8]
Ottoman era
The current village was founded in the 18th century or in the early 19th century.[10]
Sherds from the early Ottoman era has also been found here.[8]
In the 1840s, the village got caught up in the Qays–Yaman rivalry and was at one time plundered.[11]
In 1870, Victor Guérin noted the village, Cheptin, on the slopes of a hill in the distance.[12] An Ottoman village list of the same year, 1870, showed that Schetin had 16 houses and a population of 42, though the population count only included men.[13][14]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described ‘’Shebtin’’ as: "a small village in a valley, with a well to the east. It appears to be an ancient site, and has rock cut tombs south of it."[15]
In 1945 statistics the population of Shabtin was 150 Muslims,[18] with 4,423 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[19] Of this, 27 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 1,158 dunams for cereals,[20] while 7 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[21]
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 347
