Barisan of Ibelin

Uncommon card · No. 184741

Barisan of Ibelin (died 1150) was the first lord of Ibelin and the founder of the House of Ibelin in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. His name was later written as "Balian" and he is sometimes known as Balian the Elder, Barisan the Old or Balian I. Barisan was also lord of Ramla from 1138 to 1150. Barisan's origins are obscure. The Ibelins claimed to be descended from the viscounts of Chartres, but Peter W. Edbury suggests this could perhaps be a fabrication and that Barisan may have been from northern Italy. According to Jonathan Riley-Smith, however, he may have indeed been connected to Chartres, as the brother of Hugh of Le Puiset, Count of Jaffa; he would then have also been a cousin to the Montlhéry family of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem. Nothing certain is known of his life before 1115, when he appears as constable of Jaffa under Hugh. In 1120 he was present at the Council of Nablus, where the first laws of the kingdom were promulgated, perhaps representing the new, underaged Count...

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