Nawa has been identified as the city that Job dwelled in and the burial place of Shem, the son of Noah. During the Roman and Byzantine era it had a large Jewish population. The city is mentioned in the 3rd century Mosaic of Tel Rehov, and is also referred to by George of Cyprus ("Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Heinrich Gelzer, 54) in the 7th century. Numerous basalt architectural members dating to the Byzantine period bearing Jewish symbols—most prominently the menorah—were discovered ire used as spolia within Nawa (A. Reifenberg, 'Ancient Hebrew Arts', 1952). Under the Islamic Caliphate of the Rashidun, Umayyads, and Abbasids, it was a part of Jund Dimashq and the principal city of Hauran. Al-Mas'udi wrote in 943 that a mosque dedicated to Job was located from Nawa. By the 13th century, its status declined; Yaqut al-Hamawi recorded in 1225 that Nawa was "a small town of the Hauran", formerly the capital of the region. In 1233, Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi, a prominent Muslim scholar, was born in the city.