Siege of Jerusalem (1187)

Also known as Saladin's capture of Jerusalem

After the catastrophic destruction of the Crusader field army at Hattin on 4 July 1187, the cities and castles of the kingdom — stripped of their garrisons to feed the doomed march to Tiberias — fell to Saladin one after another over the summer. By September Saladin stood before the walls of Jerusalem itself. The defence was conducted by Balian of Ibelin, who had been permitted to enter the city under safe conduct to collect his wife. Balian raised every able-bodied man over fourteen and knighted sixty squires and bourgeois on the spot. After two weeks of siege Saladin's sappers brought down a section of the northern wall near the Gate of Jehoshaphat. Balian negotiated the surrender of the city on 2 October 1187 on terms that permitted Christians to ransom themselves at fixed prices; Saladin allowed the Franks to leave the city in three orderly columns over the following weeks. Eighty-eight years of Christian rule over Jerusalem had ended.

Coordinates: 31.7780°, 35.2300°

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