Abdel-Rahman Haj Ibrahim was born in 1868 in Tulkarem to a family whose origins go back to the town of Taibet Bani Saab (Taibet al-Muthalath). Haj Ibrahim had an early education opportunity, as he received his education at the Arab College in Jerusalem, and was fluent in Arabic and Ottoman. He took over the presidency of the second Municipal Council of Tulkarm in 1905 and remained in his position until 1938. He also owned many plots of land and properties in Taybeh and Tulkarm, and the most important thing he owned was an orchard by the sea near the depopulated village of Umm Khalid, known as "Faza".

The owner of the collection, Abdel-Rahman Haj Ibrahim, keeps 23 notebooks of his paternal grandfather, Abdel-Rahman, mayor of Tulkarm and one of the most prominent property owners in it, in which Haj Ibrahim recorded details of events centring on his family life and his social activities in his personal and official capacity during that period. The diaries also show the economic activities of Haj Ibrahim and his relationship with the residents of Tulkarm and Palestine, and the patterns of security and social life prevalent in Tulkarm from 1926 until he died in 1949. The collection also contains a notebook for the minutes of the Committee of the Two Envoys, which is one of the representative committees of the Ottoman Empire, and among what the grandson kept is a notebook belonging to Advocate Othman al-Bushnaq, the older brother of Zainab al-Bushnaq (wife of Abdel-Rahman Haj Ibrahim).