The city will not recover from its devastation until after its conquest by the Ottomans (1516), with the opening of the maritime routes to Europe. In 1749, the Bedouin master of Safad, Daher el-Omar, seizes it to secure for himself access to the sea. He rebuilds its walls, builds a palace and extends its quarters. His inclination to independence alienates the representatives of the Sultan, especially the Pasha of Damascus, who do not cease to attempt to assassinate him. When his allies abandon him, he finally succumbs to the attack by one of them, probably his successor, Ahmad al-Jazzar . Volney, a French diplomat and traveler, recounts his death during his visit to the region in 1784-1785:

Resolved to sustain the attack, Daher consequently made all the necessary preparations. The next day, the captain, upon approaching the palace, began to fire the canon. Daher responded using the artillery at hand; but in spite of his repeated orders, the others did not fire. Realizing then that he had been betrayed, he mounted his horse and went out through the gate leading to the gardens to the north. He wanted to escape to the countryside, but while he was advancing along the walls of his gardens, a Berber shot him in the loins. With this shot, he fell from his horse in the field; the Berbers surrounded his body and cut off his head; it was carried to the Pasha Captain, who in accordance with the loathsome custom of the Turks, gazed at it while heaping insults upon it; he had it salted and sent to Constantinople to exhibit before the Sultan and his people. Such was the tragic end of a dignified man who, from many points of view, was destined for better.

 

Volney, A Voyage to Egypt and Syria