His father, a knight in the County of Jaffa, had been rewarded with the lordship of Ibelin after the revolt of Hugh II of Le Puiset.

Shortly before his death in spring 1185, Baldwin IV ordered a formal crown-wearing by his nephew at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

It was Balian himself—a notably tall man—who carried the child Baldwin V on his shoulder at the ceremony, signifying the support of Isabella's family for her nephew.

At the end of 1186, Saladin, the sultan of Egypt and Damascus, threatened the borders of the kingdom after Guy's ally Raynald of Châtillon, Lord of Oultrejordain, had attacked a Muslim caravan.

Additionally, he directed his son, al-Afdal, who had remained at Ras al-Ma', to lead a raiding party through Galilee with the objective of attacking the lands surrounding Acre.

The raid was scheduled for 1 May, coinciding with the date on which the mediators appointed by the High Court had agreed to meet with Raymond III.

Reynald of Sidon undertook a separate route to Tiberias, while Balian of Ibelin spent the night of 30 April at Nablus.

After reaching the castle of La Fève, where the Templars and Hospitallers had camped, he found that the place was deserted, and soon heard news of the disastrous battle from the few survivors.

The army had no water and was constantly harassed by Saladin's troops, and was finally surrounded at the Horns of Hattin outside Tiberias early in July.

Saladin's army, forming a rough V shape around the Crusaders, had its right flank to the northeast and the main body to the south, with a smoke barrier created by burning brush.

The Crusader army became fragmented, and King Guy set up a royal tent at the southern Horn of Hattin as a rallying point.

[7] Raymond and Reginald soon left to attend to the defense of their own territories, and Tyre came under the leadership of Conrad of Montferrat, who had arrived not long after Hattin.

Leaving Tyre, Balian asked Saladin for permission to return through the lines to Jerusalem to escort his wife and their children to Tripoli.

Saladin indeed began the siege of Jerusalem on 20 September 1187, after he had conquered almost all of the rest of the kingdom, including Ibelin, Nablus, Ramla, and Ascalon.

The sultan felt no ill-will to Balian for breaking his oath, and arranged for an escort to accompany Maria and their children to Tripoli.

After negotiations, it was decided that the city would be handed over peacefully, and that Saladin would free seven thousand men for 30,000 bezants; two women or ten children would be permitted to take the place of one man for the same price.

If Isabella were to succeed, she needed a politically acceptable and militarily competent husband, the obvious candidate being Conrad of Montferrat, who also had some claim as Baldwin V's paternal uncle.

Isabella's marriage was annulled by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, Archbishop of Pisa, who was Papal legate, and Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais.

Balian became one of Henry's advisors, and later that year (along with William of Tiberias), he commanded the rearguard of Richard's army at the Battle of Jaffa of 1192.

A highly fictionalized version of Balian, played by English actor Orlando Bloom, is the protagonist of Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven.