Why go
The 1115 attack explains a turning point between independent Islamic Mallorca and later North African rule. It also shows how strongly control of sea routes mattered to Pisa, Catalan rulers and the island dynasty. Reading it beside the later Christian conquest helps avoid treating 1115 as a permanent takeover.
The full story
The expedition began in 1113 and brought together Pisa, other Italian cities, forces from Sardinia and Corsica, and Catalan and Occitan allies. The source names Archbishop Pietro Moriconi and Ugo da Parlascio Ebriaco among its leaders, with support from Pope Paschal II. Their coalition attacked a maritime power whose sailors had long been active across the western Mediterranean. The crusaders sacked Palma in 1115, then withdrew. They did not establish lasting Christian control over Mallorca. Within about a year, the Almoravids, a North African Muslim dynasty, took the weakened islands. Later the Almohads displaced Almoravid power on the mainland, while the Almoravid claimant Muhammad ibn Ganiya made Palma his capital. His Banu Ghaniya dynasty sought commercial allies, including Genoa and Pisa. This sequence makes the crusade a disruption in a longer contest for Mediterranean influence, rather than the same event as James I's conquest more than a century later.