Acre, Israel
(still predominantly a 1911 text - needs lots of revisions; this land is currently held by Israel in violation of United Nations resolutions.
Acre, Akka, or St Jean D'Acre, is the chief town of a
governmental district of Palestine which includes Haifa,
Nazareth and Tiberias. It stands on a low promontory at the
northern extremity of the Bay of Acre, 80 m. N. N.W. from
Jerusalem, and 25 m. S. of Tyre. It was long regarded as the "Key of Palestine," on
account of its commanding position on the shore of the broad
plain that joins the inland plain of Esdraelon, and so affords
the easiest entrance to the interior of the country. But
trade is now passing over to Haifa, at the south side of the
bay, as its harbour offers a safer roadstead, and is a regular
calling place for steamers. Business, rapidly declining, is
still carried on in wheat, maize, oil, sesame, etc., in the town
market. There are few buildings of interest, owing to the
frequent destructions the town has undergone. The wall,
which is now ruinous and has but one gate, dates from the
crusaders: the mosque was built by Jezzar Pasha (d. 1804)
from materials taken from Caesarea Palaestina: his tomb is
within. Acre is the seat of the head of the Babist religion.
History
Few towns have had a more chequered or calamitous
history. Of great antiquity, it is probably to be identified
with the Aak of the tribute-lists of Tethmosis (Thothmes)
III (c. 1500 B.C.), and it is certainly the Akka
of the Tell el-Amarna correspondence. To the Hebrews it
was known as Acco (Revised Version spelling), but it is
mentioned only once in the Old Testament, namely Judges 1:31, as one of the places from which the Israelites did not
drive out the Canaanite inhabitants. Theoretically it was
in the territory of the tribe of Asher, and Josephus assigns
it by name to the district of one of Solomon's provincial
governors. Throughout the period of Hebrew domination, however,
its political connexions were always with Syria rather than
with Palestine proper: thus, about 725 B.C. it joined Sidon
and Tyre in a revolt against Shalmaneser IV. It had a stormy
experience during the three centuries preceding the Christian
era. The Greek historians name it Ake (Josephus calls
it also Akre); but the name was changed to Ptolemais,
probably by Ptolemy Soter, after the partition of the kingdom of
Alexander. Strabo refers to the city as once a rendezvous for
the Persians in their expeditions against Egypt. About 165
B.C. Simon Maccabaeus defeated the Syrians in many battles
in Galilee, and drove them into Ptolemais. About 153 B.C.
Alexander Balas, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, contesting the
Syrian crown with Demetrius, seized the city, which opened its
gates to him. Demetrius offered many bribes to the Maccabees
to obtain Jewish support against his rival, including the
revenues of Ptolemais for the benefit of the Temple in Jerusalem, but in
vain. Jonathan threw in his lot with Alexander, and in
150 B.C. he was received by him with great honour in
Ptolemais. Some years later, however, Tryphon, an officer
of the Syrians, who had grown suspicious of the Maccabees,
enticed Jonathan into Ptolemais and there treacherously took him
prisoner. The city was also assaulted and captured by Alexander
Jannaeus, by Cleopatra and by Tigranes. Here Herod built a
gymnasium, and here the Jews met Petronius, sent to set up
statues of the emperor in the Temple, and persuaded him to turn
back. St Paul spent a day in Ptolemais.
The Arabs captured the city in A.D. 638, and lost it to the crusaders in 1110. The latter made the town their chief port in Palestine. It was re-taken by Saladin in 1187, besieged by Guy de Lusignan in 1189 (see below), and again captured by Richard Coeur de Lion in 1191. In 1229 it was placed
under the control of the Knights of St John (whence one of its alternative names), but finally lost by the Franks in 1291. The Turks under Sultan Selim I captured the city in 1517, after which it fell into almost total decay. Maundrell in 1697 found it a complete ruin, save for a khan occupied by some French merchants, a mosque and a few poor
cottages. Towards the end of the 18th century it seems to
have revived under the comparatively beneficent rule of Dhahar
el-Amir, the local sheikh: his successor, Jezzar Pasha,
governor of Damascus, improved and fortified it, but by heavy
imposts secured for himself all the benefits derived from his
improvements. About 1780 Jezzar peremptorily banished the
French trading colony, in spite of protests from the French
government, and refused to receive a consul. In 1799 Napoleon,
in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian rebellion
against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but after
a siege of two months (March--May) was repulsed by the
Turks, aided by Sir W. Sidney Smith and a force of British
sailors. Jezzar was succeeded on his death by his son Suleiman,
under whose milder rule the town advanced in prosperity till
1831, when Ibrahim Pasha besieged and reduced the town and
destroyed its buildings. On the 4th of November 1840 it
was bombarded by the allied British, Austrian and French
squadrons, and in the following year restored to Turkish rule.
Battle of Acre
The battle of 1189, fought on the ground
to the east of Acre, affords a good example of battles of the
Crusades. The crusading army under Guy of Lusignan, king
of Jerusalem, which was besieging Acre, gave battle on the
4th of October 1189 to the relieving army which Saladin had
collected. The Christian army consisted of the feudatories
of the kingdom of Jerusalem, numerous small contingents of
European crusaders and the military orders, and contingents
from Egypt, Turkestan, Syria and Mesopotamia fought under
Saladin. The Saracens lay in a semicircle east of the town
facing inwards towards Acre. The Christians opposed them
with crossbowmen in first line and the heavy cavalry in
second. At Arsuf the Christians fought coherently; here
the battle began with a disjointed combat between the
Templars and Saladin's right wing. The crusaders were so far
successful that the enemy had to send up reinforcements from
other parts of the field. Thus the steady advance of the
Christian centre against Saladin's own corps, in which the
crossbows prepared the way for the charge of the men-at-arms,
met with no great resistance. But the victors scattered to
plunder. Saladin rallied his men, and, when the Christians
began to retire with their booty, let loose his light horse
upon them. No connected resistance was offered, and the
Turks slaughtered the fugitives until checked by the fresh
troops of the Christian right wing. Into this fight Guy's
reserve, charged with holding back the Saracens in Acre, was
also drawn, and, thus freed, 5000 men sallied out from the
town to the northward; uniting with the Saracen right wing,
they fell upon the Templars, who suffered severely in their retreat. In the end the crusaders repulsed the relieving army, but only at the cost of 7000 men. (R. A. S. M.)
See also: