When Baldwin, disappointed of his visit to Sinai, seized Petra, this became a Latin bishopric, and the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem eventually had under him four bishops, of Tyre, Cæsarea, Nazareth, and Petra.[248] The name of the Latin bishop of Petra is not preserved.[249] According to Jacques of Vitry († 1244) the bishop of Petra had one suffragan, _i.e._ “the bishop of Sinai, superior to the convent of St. Katherine the Virgin, and the monks of that convent.”[250] In Sinai itself no record of a Latin prelate was preserved. But irregularities in the succession suggest that the Latin bishop of Sinai was Simeon, who advocated the cause of the monks with the Pope. On the other side of the peninsula, the appropriation of Aila by the Crusaders called for interference. Saladdin, in 1170, had a fleet built, with which he sailed around the peninsula, and attacked and retook Aila. But the enterprising Renaud de Chatillon (the Alaïris of Makrizi) collected material for ships on the Dead Sea, conveyed them to the Gulf of Akaba on camel-back, and seized Aila from where he pillaged the coast, and made piratical descents on the shipping for over a year. The small island, Iotabe, later Emrag, the present Zigiret el Faraun, lies at a short distance from Aila. It has no harbour, but is almost entirely built over by a castle with squared towers in the mediæval style. The work was probably begun in Roman times, but was added to by Renaud de Chatillon. But in 1184 Melek el Adel (Abu Bakr, 1199-1218), the brother of Saladdin (1171-1193), came with a fleet to Aila and attacked and finally routed the Franks. Advancing across the country he re-conquered Petra, which henceforth remained under Moslim rule. In the meantime the monks were profiting by the good graces of neighbouring prelates. In 1203 the archbishop of Crete, described as “a lover of St. Katherine, the Virgin,” bestowed on the monks of Sinai property in Crete which represented an annual income of four hundred ducats,[251] whereupon Simeon, bishop of Sinai went into Crete, where he built a priory (μετόχιον). In 1204 the Venetians acquired the whole island of Crete by purchase from Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, and Simeon went to Venice where losses incurred by the monks, were made good to him.[252] A letter is extant of the Doge Pietro Ziani of 1211, in which he confirmed the ruler of Mount Sinai in the possessions which he held in Crete. It describes the ruler as “archbishop,” which seems to be the earliest use of this title. Crete remained in the power of the city of Venice till 1645, and letters are extant from successive doges which confirm the rights held by the monks in the island.[253]