In the eighteenth century, Acre witnessed a dramatic rise from a fishing village to a fortified city of some 25,000 inhabitants. The third largest city in Syria - after Aleppo and Damascus - it was the capital of a unique political and economic region on the Syrian coast including all of Galilee and the coastal towns from Jaffa to Tripoli. It was the first region in the Arab East to be inextricably linked to the European-dominated world economy. Cash crops (first cotton, then grain) made Acre the center of trade and political power. Acre was markedly different from other cities in the region: its urban society consisted almost exclusively of immigrants seeking their fortune. This book combines the most extensive use to date of local Arabic sources with commercial records in Europe to shed light on a region and power center many identify as the beginning of modern Palestinian history.