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Chapter 27:
"There They Must Live Or Die"
The conquest of the holy city of Jerusalem was the inevitable sequel to the extermination of the Christian army at Hattin. The restoration of this most holy site, and particularly the recapture of the Dome of the Rock, was the immediate goal of the victorious forces of Islam.
Nothing stood between Saladin at Hattin and total victory with the seizure of Jerusalem, except one knight.
Balian of Ibelin had escaped death at Hattin. He had fled in the company of Raymond of Tripoli. Now he begged Saladin's permission to go to Jerusalem to rescue his wife Queen Maria Comnena and their children. The Sultan granted this, on condition that Balian would no longer bear arms against him.
Once in the city, however, Balian was begged to succour his fellow Christians.
A man of honour, he asked for Saladin's advice: Saladin in turn relieved him of his obligation. And as Balian was busy arranging the defences, Saladin organized an escort for the wife of the new commander of the Christian army to return safely to Tyre.1
Supported by a handful of knights and sixty freshly knighted burghers, Balian led a hopeless resistance.
Amongst the civilians who took up arms to assist the defence was at least one woman. Her name was Margaret of Beverley, who had been born while her parents were on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Once she had reached adulthood she had retraced her parents' footsteps to the East and was caught up in the siege.
In her own words, she defended the city like a man, wearing a cooking pot as a helmet, and carrying water to the men. A missile boulder wounded her with fragments. But she survived to tell her tale and to establish herself as a remarkable woman warrior.2
Saladin's army drew up outside the walls of Jerusalem on September 20.
Nine days later, it was all over.
Balian's miniature army had fought with the dogged desperation of those who were beyond hope. But the Saracens outnumbered them, and had tunnelled beneath the ramparts. The fall of Jerusalem was imminent, and with that knowledge must have come the memories of what had happened the last time its defences had been breached.
For the non combatants - the women and children - the worst was surely yet to come.
Balian distinguished himself with his coolness and ferocity at the last throw of the dice.
He led a deputation to Saladin begging quarter: Saladin replied only that he would return evil for evil.
Balian begged, humbling and degrading himself before the inflexible Sultan, who had not wished to attack the Holy City, but now that it was done, intended to fire out its population to the last man and woman.
Balian then made one of the most inspired speeches in military history. It was recorded by Saladin's historian, Ibn al Athir:
Know then, O Sultan, that we are infinite in number and that God alone can guess what our number is.
The inhabitants are reluctant to fight, because they hope for quarter, such as you have granted to so many others. They fear death and cling to life; but once death becomes inevitable, I swear by the God who hears us, we shall kill our women and our children, we shall burn our riches and we shall not leave you a single coin.
You will find no more women to reduce to slavery, or men to put in irons.
We shall destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Mosque al Aqsa and all the holy places.
We shall slaughter all the Moslems, to the number of five thousand, imprisoned in our walls.
We shall not leave a single beast of burden alive.
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