 In 1848 , Aqil assisted an expedition headed by US Navy captain William Francis Lynch to the Dead Sea , and became known in the United States and Europe through the publication of Lynch 's book that year . Vivid descriptions of Aqil by Lynch are quoted at length in the works of Finn . Lynch 's first encounter with Aqil was in the divan of Said Bey , the Ottoman kaimakam of Acre , and is recorded as follows : 
