fortified site one and half miles to the east and laid waste to the old site. This event is marked as the beginning of the town's life at its modern location. After al-Omar's death in 1775, the town remained under Ottoman rule until 1918, with the exception of two brief periods.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Haifa during his unsuccessful campaign to conquer Palestine and Syria, but soon had to withdraw; in the campaign's final proclamation, Napoleon took credit for having razed the fortifications of "Kaïffa" (as the name was spelled at the time) along with those of Gaza, Jaffa and Acre. Between 1831 and 1840, the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali governed Haifa, after his son Ibrahim Pasha had wrested its control from the Ottomans.
When the Egyptian occupation ended and Acre declined, the importance of Haifa rose. In 1854, the city had a population of 2,070 Arabs (1,200 Muslims, 870 Christians) and 32 Jews. The arrival of the German Templers in 1868, who settled in what is now known as the German Colony of Haifa, was a turning point in Haifa's development. The Templers built and operated a steam-based power station, opened factories and inaugurated carriage service to Acre, Nazareth and Tiberias, playing a key role in modernizing the city.
The first European Jews arrived at the end of the 19th century from Romania. The Central Jewish Colonisation Society in Romania purchased over 1,000 acres (4.0 km) near Haifa. As the Jewish settlers had been city dwellers, they hired the former fellahin tenants to instruct them in agriculture. In 1909 Haifa became central to the Bahá'í Faith, when the remains of their prophet, the Báb, were moved from Acre to Haifa and interred in the shrine built on Mount Carmel by `Abdu'l-Bahá.
British Mandate
from the Ottomans in September 1918 by Indian horsemen serving in the British Army after overrunning Ottoman positions armed with spears and swords. On 22 September, British troops were
