At some point the region was abandoned, but repopulated by refugees from other parts of Syria during the 13th-century Mongol invasions. It was then that the region gained its modern Arabic name, "al-Lajāʾ", which means "the refuge". During early Ottoman rule in the 16th century, the Lajat contained numerous grain-growing villages, but by the 17th century, the region was all but abandoned. Local Bedouin tribes, such as the Sulut, increasingly used the region for grazing their flocks, and Druze migrants from Mount Lebanon began settling the area in the early 19th century. Today, the population is mixed, with Druze inhabiting its central and eastern areas, and Muslims and Melkites living in villages along its western edge.