How Balian's 60 "Fake" Knights HUMILIATED Saladin's 40,000 Army | Siege Of Jerusalem

Balian of Ibelin rode into a doomed city with almost no cavalry—so he made some. He gathered burghers and squires, armed guildsmen, and, on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre’s steps, dubbed about sixty brand-new knights from townsmen and youths. Then he turned optics into a weapon: staged cavalry parades on different gates, rotated shields and surcoats, lit extra watchfires, and timed bell peals and sorties so Saladin’s scouts kept overcounting defenders. Behind the show, masons and monks patched breaches, militias cycled to the walls, and crossbow teams raked siege crews working under mantlets.

Day after day the “paper” cavalry hit like real steel—short charges to smash ladders, burn rams, and drag off captured banners—while sappers counter-mined and barricades rose street by street behind the threatened towers. With starvation looming and a storming sack certain, Balian played his last card: he held long enough, and hit hard enough, to force terms. Instead of the massacre everyone expected, Jerusalem surrendered on negotiated ransoms, with thousands allowed to depart alive. Saladin took the city, but the garrison’s bluff and bite flipped the script—sixty “fake” knights and a city of civilians had made an empire blink.

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