a map by pierre jacotin from napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as "el rabsieh." the village mosque dates from the time of ali pasha al-khazindar, father of abdullah pasha (i.e. some time before 1818 ce). french explorer victor guérin visited the village, which he called "el-rhabsieh", in 1875. in 1881, the palestine exploration fund's "survey of western palestine" (swp) described al-ghabisiyya as "a village, built of stone, containing about 150 moslems, on the edge of the plain, surrounded by olives, figs, pomegranate and gardens; a stream of water near, plentiful of water."