When these delegates got back to the city here was unexpected help. Balian d’Ibelin. By certain accounts he made his way to Jerusalem after escaping the battle on Mount Hattin. Or it may be that he was captured but asked leave to go and comfort his wife, Maria Comnena. And because Saladin looked indulgently upon princes and their consorts he allowed this distinguished noble to go, admonishing him to remain one night only. Nor should he take up arms. However, the citizens implored him to stay and prepare a defense. There were but fourteen knights inside Jerusalem, according to Geoffrey de Vinsauf. Balian stripped silver from the roof of the Holy Sepulcher and melted gold icons. With this money he recruited mercenaries. He knighted thirty members of the bourgeoisie as well as boys from aristocratic families and distributed swords to burghers as if they were fighting men. And because he had violated an oath he sent word to explain. Saladin, who behaved graciously to men he respected, forgave this breach.
On the twentieth day of September here came God’s mortal enemies wailing and screeching. Hai! Hai! they called amid a clamor of trumpets.
Sepulcher of Christ! True and Holy Cross! shouted the Franks.
Saladin planned to attack the north wall but it was strongly defended and from that direction his soldiers looked up into the sun. After five days he decided to move his pavilion to the Mount of Olives where he could look down into the city. When people observed Saracen tents dismantled they began to celebrate, thinking he meant to withdraw. But when they understood the turn of it they wrung their hands.
Presently his miners set to work undermining the wall, busying themselves at the place where almost ninety years earlier Duke Godfrey broke through. Frightened citizens clustered about Queen Sibylla and the patriarch Heraclius, beseeching them to seek terms. Lord Balian therefore led a delegation to ask Saladin for a truce. But when they got to his pavilion he talked of how their ancestors ravaged Jerusalem. He declared they would be wise to surrender without argument.
If it please God, they answered, we will not.
I tell you now, Saladin replied. I consider Jerusalem to be the abode of God, whether Christian or Muslim. If I may have the city through peaceful agreement I will not besiege it nor attack the walls. This is what I desire. Here is what I will do. I will give you thirty thousand gold bezants to strengthen it. I will grant you an area two leagues in each direction where you may work and move about as you choose. I will see that you have provisions enough. If by Pentecost you have received no help from Christians oversea you will surrender Jerusalem.
To this offer the delegates replied that they could not give up the city where God’s blood was shed.
Saladin then vowed that he would take it.
Lord Balian asked if his wife and children might be granted safe passage from Jerusalem to Tripoli. Saladin assented, despatching a Saracen knight to escort them.
Before the assault he notified the people once more of his conditions. Again they defied him. Then his soldiers moved against Jerusalem between the Damascus Gate and the Tower of David. On the ramparts stood a cross erected in former times to commemorate the capture of Antioch. Saracens knocked it down with one blow and destroyed much of the wall. Miners dug tunnels that they packed with cloth, wood, and other materials and set ablaze. Petraries, trebuchets, and similar devices pursued their noisy work. Archers launched such flights of arrows that nobody could lift a finger. If the people of Jerusalem sallied forth to do battle they would be met by pagans carrying skins or bags that squirted dust into their eyes. So it became clear how God was determined to punish His recreant children.
In the city were two boys whose fathers chanced to be elsewhere. When these knights heard that Saladin had besieged Jerusalem they sent word asking for custody, explaining that as they themselves were free men it was not right for their children to be taken captive and led off to slavery. Saladin agreed. He directed Balian to let these children out of the city in order that he himself might watch over them. These were Thomassin d’Ibelin, who was a nephew of Lord Balian, and Guillemin de Jubail. And when they were delivered to Saladin he gave them jewels, clean robes, and food, after which he seated them on his knees and began to weep. The emirs asked why he felt sorrowful and he replied that everything is fleeting because whatever we hope to keep will be taken from us. Even now, he said, while I dispossess the children of other men, so will my children be destitute when I am gone. He said this because he did not trust his brother Malik al-Adil. Indeed, after his death Malik would seize control and disinherit Saladin’s children, so the prophecy came to pass.
However that may be, when people in the city understood they could not prevail against these enemies of truth they took counsel, asking each other what to do. Some wanted to rush forth at night to challenge the Turks, thinking it better to fight than be trapped and miserably slaughtered. Heraclius the patriarch disagreed. For each man within these walls, he said, there are countless women and children. If we expend our lives then will the Saracens take our women and children and oblige them to renounce their belief in Jesus Christ. Hence they will be lost to God. But if we treat with Saladin and depart for Christian land, I think it would be better. One by one, next by dozens and hundreds, the people agreed with Heraclius. Lord Balian, seeing this was the case, rode out to consult with Saladin and make peace as best he could. But
