the green crystal vase supposed to have been used at the Last Supper, and subsequently famous in mediaeval literature and legend as the "Holy Grail." Caesarea was finally destroyed by Bibars in 1265, and its ruins are now inhabited by the Bosnians referred to in Part II., § 4.
Acre.—The varied history of Acre has been touched upon in Part I., §§ 5 and 6. It is mentioned only once in the Old Testament (Judges, i., 31), under the name of Accho, and once also in the New Testament (Acts, xxi., 7), under its Greek name of Ptolemais. According to the Talmud the Jews regarded Acre as being outside the confines of the Holy Land, whose frontier was its outer wall. The town became of importance during the Crusades, and was the favourite seat of the Court of the Latin Kingdom. On the fall of Jerusalem it succeeded that city as the capital and as the headquarters of the Knightly Orders, owing its full name of S. Jean d'Acre to the Knights Hospitallers. It was for several years, until its fall in May, 1291, the last outpost of the Crusaders in Palestine.
Even after the disappearance of the Franks Acre remained the usual landing-place for Christian pilgrims from the West. In more recent times it has stood several sieges, notably by Napoleon in 1799; was captured by Ibrahim Pasha in 1831; and was bombarded in 1840 by the British, Austrian and Turkish fleets under Stopford and Napier. In later Turkish times Acre was the capital of the Sanjaq which bore its name. Its connexion with the Bahaʾi sect is described in Part II., § 18.
Now a town of about 4,000 inhabitants, Acre is one of the most picturesque places in Palestine. The walls and earthworks, which have been described as a perfect example of a late eighteenth-century fortress, are practically intact. Built largely on Crusaders' foundations and from the débris of Crusaders’ walls by ʾOmar al-Daher, and completed by Jezzar Pasha between 1775 and 1802, they form a most interesting feature of the place, and still bear signs, in the form of round shot embedded in them, of the bombardment of 1840.
