Draft:Raid on the Balearic Islands (1109)

The Norwegian Raid on the Balearic Islands was a military campaign consisting of raids around the Balearic islands which had been under muslim control for roughly two centuries. The raids were a huge success for the Norwegian crusaders, facing no defeat. Islamic scholars have refered to this as a larger history of Islamic Spain

Background
The raids occured on the crusaders journey to the Holy land in the levant. There had been multiple military successes before this such as the Siege of Lisbon and the Raid on Santiago de Compostela. The islands were often percepted as a pirate haven and slaving centre by Christians.

The Raids
The Crusaders first arrived at the small island of Formentera. The island settlement is described as precarious and inhabited by Saracens. The settlement was established in a cave in a cliff where they kept considerable pluder they had gained from raiding.

According to the Heimskringla Sigurd lowered several ships with four men in front of an inaccessible rock slab on Formentera to drive out a group of so-called "heathen bluemen" (North African Muslims) who had entrenched themselves there. By attaching ropes to the front and back of the boats and securing them under the ribs, they lowered the boats down the side of the cliff. The Norwegian archers and stone throwers, who were protected inside these boats, successfully forced the Saracens to retreat from the defensive wall and into the cave. As a result, Sigurd and his troops were able to climb up the cliff and reach the wall.

Once they breached the wall, the Christians gathered large pieces of wood near the entrance of the cave, set them on fire, and suffocated or burned the people inside. They also killed anyone who tried to escape. The loot recovered from the cave was said to be the most valuable of the entire expedition.