tant Jewish center in the Galilee.
In the 1720s, the Bedouin ruler Dhaher al-Omar, fortified the town and signed an agreement with the neighboring Bedouin tribes to prevent looting. Accounts from that time tell of the great admiration people had for Dhaher, especially his war against bandits on the roads. Richard Pococke, who visited Tiberias in 1727, witnessed the building of a fort to the north of the city, and the strengthening of the old walls, attributing it to a dispute with the pasha (ruler) of Damascus. In the 1740, Tiberias was under the autonomous rule of Dhaher. Under Dhaher's patronage, Jewish families were encouraged to settle in Tiberias. He invited Chaim Abulafia of Smyrna to rebuild the Jewish community. The synagogue he built still stands.
Under instructions from the Ottoman Porte, Suleyman Pasha of Damascus laid siege to Tiberias in 1742, with the intention of eliminating Dhaher. However, the siege was unsuccessful. In the following year, Suleyman set out to repeat the attempt with even greater reinforcements, but he died en route.
In 1775, Ahmed el-Jazzar "the Butcher", brought peace to the region with an iron fist. In 1780, many Polish Jews settled in the town.During the 18th and 19th centuries it received an influx of rabbis who re-established it as a center for Jewish learning.
Six hundred people, including nearly 500 Jews, died when the town was devastated by the 1837 Galilee earthquake. An American expedition found Tiberias still in a state of disrepair in 1847/1848.
In 1842 there were about 4,000 inhabitants, around a third of whom were Jews, the rest being Turks and a few Christians. In 1850 Tiberias contained three synagogues which served the Sephardi community, which consisted of 80 families, and the Ashkenazim, all Poles and Russians, numbering about 100 families. It was reported that the Jewish inhabitants of Tiberias enjoyed more peace and security than those ofSafed.
In 1863 it is
