or Acre
Seaport town (pop., 2000 est.: 45,737), northwestern Israel .
First mentioned in an Egyptian text from the 19th century BC, it was long a Canaanite and Phoenician city. After its conquest by Alexander the Great (336 BC), it was a Greek polity (called Philadelphus), and for several centuries it remained part of the Roman Republic and Empire. The Persians (614) and Arabs (638) conquered the town, but it was ruled by the Turkish Seljūq dynasty when the Crusaders captured it in 1104. The Crusaders renamed the city St. Jean d'Acre and made it their last capital (see Crusades ). Except for brief intervals, it was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from 1516 until British forces took it in 1918. It was part of Palestine under the British mandate and became part of Israel in 1948, when most of its Arab inhabitants fled. Notable structures include the Great Mosque and the Crypt of St. John. It is the burial place of Bahā Ullāh , the founder of the Bahāī faith .