Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani

Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani (1689/1690–1775) was the sheikh of the Arab Zayadina clan who became the effectively independent ruler of northern Palestine under Ottoman suzerainty. He took Tiberias in 1730, added Safed and Nazareth by around 1740, and in 1750 made Acre his capital, growing rich on the cotton trade with France. He invited Christian and Jewish immigrants, helping his towns to grow.

Allied with Ali Bey of Egypt, he seized Sidon and Jaffa in 1771, at his peak holding the coast from Jaffa to Sidon. Driven from Acre in March 1775, he soon returned, but an Ottoman fleet took the city and killed him that August.