Acre is a port city on the Southern Syrian coast, which is mentioned in the Bible (Judges 1:31). It was a major military port during Roman times (ca. 9th BCE - 5th CE century). In the early Muslim period, the Umayyad Caliph Mu‘awiya (r. 41AH / 661-680 CE) strengthened Acre's fortifications. He also settled Persians from parts of Muslim Syria in its vicinity. Since then, upto 10th CE century, Acre remained the  the main naval-base of the millitary district of Jordan (Jund al-Urdun). After  10th CE century, port Zeila further up the cost in Somalia took its place. In 498 AH / 1104 CE, Acre fell to the Crusaders and quickly became  principal port for the Europeans. In 1291, the  Mamluk sultan,besieged the town and eventually captured it and razed its fortifications to the ground. By the early- 12th AH / late-17th CE century only a few hundred people lived among its rubble, making a living as fishermen.

Acre during 17th and 18th  CE centuries: During 1690-1775 CE, due to the production and trade of cotton, Acre came to play a central role as a trade centre of the region. Large sums of trade revenues were spent in building fortifications, khans (caravanserais), houses, baths, mosques and churches.The growth in trade attracted immigrants to Acre, especially from Cyprus, Damascus, and Mount Lebanon, making it the third-largest city in Bilad al-Sham (the Syrian coastal region). All this made for a very unusual social structure. With Catholic Greeks in majority, Acre came to be an urban society that consisted exclusively of immigrants: void of powerful clans, guilds and crafts organisations and of urban elites (developed over time in other cities) which might have provided effective resistance to the pressure of despotic rulers.

The rapid rise and fall of Acre during this period also intersected with several other developments: the integration of the Syrian coast into the Europe-dominated world economy, the weakening of the central Ottoman power, the concomitant rise of local elites, the rise of the local Arab Greek Catholic community and, finally, the emergence of three very able rulers in Acre. Through cotton trade and a short-lived export of grain, Acre came to be both the first coastal city to be drawn into the world economy dominated by Europe, and also the first to lose its role in that system. During the late Ottoman period, Palestine and the whole Syrian coast experienced rapid urbanisation and economic expansion, but Acre remained remote.

Acre from 19th century onwards: Under the British Mandate in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Acre expanded very little.The British used the citadel as a major prison and place of executions, hence very little investment capital reached the city.Today Acre consists of two cities: the Arab city intra muros and the new Jewish city extra muros, separated by huge fortifications.

The population numbered about 45,000 in the 1990s, one quarter being Arab. Extensive excavations and reconstruction of the Crusader town have made tourism its single most important industry.

Citation:

Philipp, Thomas, “Acre”. Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE (Brill Online, 2013).   

http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/acre-SIM_0186 [accessed July 2013]