Acre

Acre was the last stronghold of the Crusaders in the Holy Land, until the Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil took it after a bloody siege in 1291. In keeping with Mamluk policy toward the coastal cities, which were not to be usable by a returning Frankish fleet, Acre was destroyed, and almost nothing was spared. In 1321 a geographer still called it a beautiful city in ruins, though its spacious port was in use and it was full of artisans. Safed replaced it as the chief city of the province.

Acre entered the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and stayed small: the census of 1596 found only 81 Muslim households there. In 1697 an English traveller found a ruin, save a khan built by French merchants, a mosque and a few poor cottages. In the 18th century Daher al-Umar, the Arab ruler of Galilee, rebuilt the walls from the medieval ruins and made it his capital, until he died outside them in 1775. His successor Jazzar Pasha moved the capital of Sidon province here, fortified the city and raised the Jazzar Mosque. In 1799 Napoleon's two-month siege failed against the Ottoman defenders and British sailors under Sir Sidney Smith.