The village may have been named al-Mazar (Arabic for "shrine", "a place one visits") because it was a burial place of many of those who fell in the Battle of Ain Jalut between the Mamluks and the Mongols in 1260. The villagers traced their origins to the al-Sadiyyun nomads, who in turn were descended from Shaykh Sad al-Din al-Shaybani (d.1224), a prominent Sufi mystic from the Jaba village on the Golan.
During the period of Ottoman rule over Palestine, Al-Mazar was captured and burned by Napoleon's troops in April 1799 during the Syrian leg of his military campaign in Egypt.
In the 19th century, V. Guérin visited al-Mazar, describing it as a village with about 500 inhabitants, situated at the peak of Djebel Foukou'ah, and surrounded by a belt of gigantic cactus plants. Numerous wells carved in the rock were said to point to the antiquity of the village. From the village, he could see the whole of Djebel Foukou'ah, which he identifies as the Mount Gilboa of biblical scripture, as well as the Jezreel Valley, the Little Hermon (actually Djebel Dhahy), Mount Tabor, and further north, the snowy peaks of Mount Hermon. Also seen from the village to the west and northwest were the Plain of Esdraelon and the Carmel Mountains; to the south, the mountains around Jenin; and to the east, before the Jordan River, what he calls the ancient country of Galaad. He notes that the name of Mount Gilboa is preserved in the name of the village of Djelboun, also situated on the mountain. Descending the mountain towards the west-southwest, at the base of the village of al-Mazar, he notes the presence of a spring of the same name, Ain el-Mezar, and on the slopes of this side of the mountain, which are less steep, there were olive trees and wheat being cultivated.
Later that same century, The Survey of Western Palestine described the place as, "a village on the summit of the mountain. It is principally built of stone, and has a well to the south-east. A few olives
