Balian of Ibelin

Balian of Ibelin was a leading noble of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in the later twelfth century and a member of the influential Ibelin family. Through marriage to Maria Komnene, widow of King Amalric I, he became stepfather to the royal princess Isabella and was drawn deeply into the succession politics surrounding Baldwin IV, Baldwin V, Guy of Lusignan and the competing baronial factions of the kingdom.

Balian survived the catastrophic defeat of the crusader army at Hattin in July 1187 and became the principal organiser of Jerusalem’s defence when Saladin approached the city. With few trained knights available, he armed and knighted defenders and ultimately negotiated the city’s surrender in October, securing terms that allowed many inhabitants to ransom themselves rather than face a sack. He remained politically active afterward, supporting Conrad of Montferrat and participating in the diplomacy surrounding the Third Crusade.

Sharon Kay Penman’s The Land Beyond the Sea gives Balian a major role in the factional politics preceding Hattin, while Cecelia Holland’s Jerusalem uses the same crusader society from another fictional perspective. Tariq Ali’s The Book of Saladin approaches the conflict from Saladin’s world, and John Man’s non-fiction Saladin supplies the historical context for Balian’s negotiated surrender of Jerusalem in 1187.