Mass baptisms were staged as psychological warfare against Muslim defenders.

Evidence

Jaume staged a mass baptism of new Christian converts from Islam in front of the walls of the besieged city: a symbolically charged move meant both to discourage the Muslim defenders and to let Jaume claim the moral and religious high ground as a crusader. — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 913

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to forced-conversion and display-of-power tactics in other crusading contexts, and to ritual as political theater.