Venetian expedition to the Levant (1099–1100)

The details of the expedition are somewhat obscure, as the main source is a single religious text, which reports a naval battle against a Pisan fleet off the harbour of Rhodes, the discovery and translation of relics purporting to belong to Saint Nicholas from Myra to Venice, and the Venetians' participation in the capture of the port city of Haifa in August 1100, before the fleet returned home.

[5] In response to the Pope's pleas, the Republic of Pisa mustered a large fleet that sailed in 1098: the Annales Pisani record 120 ships, although the number is likely exaggerated.

[7] The Pisan fleet is known to have reached Latakia in November 1099, where they assisted Bohemond I of Antioch in besieging the city, then held by the Byzantines, and to have remained in the Levant until it sailed home in early April 1100.

Traditionally this has been interpreted as reflecting the Republic's preoccupation with the Adriatic Sea and their existing trade networks with the Byzantine Empire and Fatimid Egypt, rather than with the Levant.

[8][15] The 16th-century Venetian historian Marino Sanuto the Younger gives a detailed breakdown of the fleet as 80 galleys, 72 round ships (navi) for cargo, and 44 horse transports (tarete), but the accuracy of such numbers is uncertain.

[14] The voyage of the Venetian fleet is chiefly relayed in an account of the translation of the relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Venice, written about 15–20 years after the events by a monk of the monastery of San Nicolò al Lido.

Apart from a small number (30 or 36) of prominent men kept as hostages, the Pisan prisoners were released on condition that they no longer make war on other Christians, as well as refrain from trade in the Byzantine Empire.

[21] Although the battle is often accepted as fact and part of the Venetian–Pisan rivalry for trade routes,[22][23][24] naval historian John H. Pryor opines that "the entire tale reeks of fabrication" and that such a lopsided victory by a numerically inferior force in a combat between galley fleets is highly unlikely.

[25] Donald Nicol also doubts the veracity of the account, and points out that the prohibition for the Pisans from engaging in trade in Byzantium is anachronistic for the time in question.

The miraculous nature of the discovery was further strengthened by the presence in the tomb of a fresh palm leaf, while an inscription in Greek purportedly revealed this to be the saint's real burial place.