Siege of Jerusalem (1187)

Siege of Jerusalem (1187)
Saladin and Christians of Jerusalem, illustration by François Guizot (1883)
Date 20 September — 2 October, 1187 (1 week and 5 days) Location Jerusalem Result Ayyubid victory Negotiated surrender of Jerusalem Fall of the first Kingdom of Jerusalem
Belligerents
Ayyubid Sultanate	Kingdom of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller Knights Templar Order of St. Lazarus Order of Mountjoy Teutonic Order County of Tripoli
Commanders and leaders
Saladin	Balian of Ibelin  Heraclius
Strength
Unknown, the army primarily made up of the surviving army from the Battle of Hattin and reinforcements gathered from Syria and Egypt. Likely strength around 20,000 men	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown

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Jerusalem
History Timeline City of David Second Temple Period Aelia Capitolina Middle Ages Early Muslim period Kingdom of Jerusalem Mutasarrifate British Mandate Israeli takeover of West Jerusalem Jordanian annexation of East Jerusalem Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem
Sieges Before Common Era 701 BCE 597 BCE 587 BCE 63 BCE 37 BCE Common Era 70 614 637 1099 1187 1244 1834 1917 1948
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The siege of Jerusalem lasted from 20 September to 2 October 1187, when Balian of Ibelin surrendered the city to Saladin. Earlier that summer, Saladin had defeated the kingdom's army and conquered several cities. Balian was charged with organizing a defense. The city was full of refugees but had few soldiers. Despite this fact the defenders managed to repulse several attempts by Saladin's army to take the city by storm. Balian bargained with Saladin to buy safe passage for many, and the city was peacefully surrendered with limited bloodshed. Though Jerusalem fell, it was not the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, as the capital shifted first to Tyre and later to Acre after the Third Crusade. Latin Christians responded in 1189 by launching the Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart, Philip Augustus, and Frederick Barbarossa separately.^[1] In Jerusalem, Saladin restored Muslim holy sites and generally showed tolerance towards Christians; he allowed Orthodox and Eastern Christian pilgrims to visit the holy sites freely—though Frankish (i.e. Catholic) pilgrims were required to pay a fee for entry. The control of Christian affairs in the city was handed over to the patriarch of Constantinople.