of these, ʾOmar al-Daher, was early in the eighteenth century an Arab chief, whose principal village was Safed. Having seized Tiberias he carried on war with the pashas of Damascus, just as Tancred had done with their predecessors in the Crusading period. In 1749 he seized Acre from a subordinate of the pasha of Sidon and established himself in it. He restored somewhat the defences of the city, attracted the population by his good government, increased his power by treaties with Arab tribes and with the Metawileh, and thus became strong enough to wage war with Damascus on equal terms. When he allied himself with the Egyptian ruler ʾAli Beg (1770–3), and obtained the help of Russian ships (1772–3), there was a prospect of his becoming master of all southern Syria. But the death of ʾAli Beg (1773) and the peace between Turkey and Russia (1774) and quarrels with his own sons resulted in his defeat and death (1775). His successor in Acre was Ahmed al-Jezzar. He was a Bosnian by birth, had been a slave of the Egyptian Begs, and had recently won a military reputation in Syria. Adventurers flocked to his service, and his pashalik extended until it included the coast from Beirut to Caesarea, along with northern Palestine and the Biqaʾ. His efforts to gain the pashalik of Damascus were not permanently successful, but he was the most powerful ruler in Syria, and by fortifying Acre (from 1786 onwards) made it the strongest town on the coast. The Ottoman Government would have dispossessed him more than once if they had been able. Yet when Napoleon invaded Syria they appointed him at once chief commander of their forces.
The Invasion of Napoleon I.—In 1799 Napoleon, returning from Egypt, captured Jaffa and laid siege to Acre. At this juncture the French in Egypt were being threatened by the British Fleet under Commodore Sir Sidney Smith, while a Turkish army was assembling in Syria. Napoleon's object was to compel the Ottoman Government to come to terms with France. He defeated the Turks on the Plain of Jezreel, and advanced as far as Nazareth and Safed; but he failed to capture Acre, gallantly defended by Sidney
