Michel Balard (born in 1936 with Sucy-in-Brie), Historian French, specialist in the the Middle Ages.

Incorporated history (1959), studying at the practical School of the High Studies (IVe section), he was then member of the French École of Rome of 1965 to 1968. He supports his thesis of doctorate entitled Romanie génoise (XIIe- beginning of XVe century) (1976, Paris-I). It was interested especially in colonization in particular in the medieval East of XIe (starting from the First crusade) until XVe century, at the time of the apogee of the city-States of the Italian peninsula.

Its research is carried out around the trade, of the cultural political institutions and of the Eastern Mediterranean (Holy Land, Cyprus, Syria), in Central Asia (empire of Gengis Khan) and in China. He is today professor emeritus at the university of Paris-I Pantheon-Sorbonne.