Recorded history in Canaan begins with the Middle Bronze Age, which provides the background for the beginning of the story of the Old Testament.

The city of 'Akko, or Acre, blessed with a fine natural harbor, receives its earliest historical mention in Egyptian texts of the nineteenth century BCE, as does ...

…Ptolemais, …

The Syrio-Egyptian negotiations collapse in 218 BCE and Antiochus renews his advance, overrunning Ptolemy's forward defenses.

The Seleucids now hold Coele Syria (Lebanon), Phoenicia, and Palestine.

Alexander Balas, his claims recognized also by the Roman Senate after he defeats Demetrius I to win the Seleucid throne, receives the further honor of marriage to Cleopatra Thea, daughter of his allies Ptolemy VI and Cleopatra II, who may have been engaged to her uncle Ptolemy VIII king of Cyrene in 154, but he eventually married her sister Cleopatra III.

The wedding takes place in Ptolemais (Acre) in the presence of Ptolemy VI.

According to 1 Maccabees, Jonathan Apphus had been invited but arrives after the wedding ceremony while celebrations continue.

He appears with presents for both kings, and is permitted to sit between them as their equal; Balas even clothes him with his own royal garment and otherwise accords him high honor.

Jannaeus is defeated at Acre, and …

Tigranes II of Armenia, under whom the country has become the strongest state in the Roman East, has penetrated as far south as Ptolemais (modern 'Akko, Israel), but in 66 BCE the Roman general Pompey finally defeats him.

Pompey receives him graciously and gives him back his kingdom in exchange for Syria and other southern conquests.

A massive earthquake devastates coastal Palestine on July 23, 501, partially destroying Acre and causing damage …

The Persians invest the Palestinian coast and conquer Acre.

Acre comes under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate beginning in 638, following the defeat of the imperial army of Heraclius by the Muslim army of Khalid ibn al-Walid in the Battle of Yarmouk, and the capitulation of the Christian city of Jerusalem to the Caliph Umar,

The actual conquest of Acre According to the early Muslim chronicler al-Baladhuri was led by Shurahbil ibn Hasana, one of the main field commanders during the Muslim conquest of Syria, and the city likely surrendered without resistance.