Relations soured between al-Jazzar and Bashir in 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte's two-month siege of Acre. Al-Jazzar had called on Bashir to contribute forces to aid Acre's defense, but Bashir disregarded the troop levy. Al-Jazzar was infuriated, and although Bashir took a strictly neutral position in the conflict, al-Jazzar accused him of sending the French troops provisions. He subsequently forced Bashir to depart Mount Lebanon by sending an expeditionary force to help Baz oust Bashir from Deir al-Qamar. Bashir, along with Sheikh Bashir and many of his fellow Jumblatti sheikhs, left Deir al-Qamar and headed north for Akkar and the area of the Krak des Chevaliers (al-Husn). Emir Bashir thereafter penned a letter appealing to the British admiral, Sydney Smith, whose forces' bombardment of French troops was key in forcing the French withdrawal from Palestine, to use his offices with the imperial Ottoman authorities to restore him to Mount Lebanon. Smith responded positively to his plea, docked his ship in Tripoli's port and met with Bashir, who then accompanied Smith to meet the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Kör Yusuf Ziyaüddin Pasha in al-Arish. Kör Yusuf was in al-Arish commanding the Ottoman ground army to retake Egypt from the French. Bashir informed Kör Yusuf of his situation with al-Jazzar and was treated well by the grand vizier, who thereafter issued a decree granting Bashir fiscal authority over Mount Lebanon, Wadi al-Taym, the Beqaa Valley and the Shia Muslim-dominated Jabal Amil. As part of this arrangement, Bashir would be independent from the governors of Sidon, Tripoli and Damascus and would submit tax revenues directly to the imperial government. However, this major appointment was tempered by Bashir's lack of actual control over his assigned lands, which al-Jazzar had largely transferred to Yusuf's sons and Baz.