Even though he was deeply embroiled in this debate, Suleim kept watching the shaykh from the corner of his eye. He saw the shaykh noting every nuance and particle of the argument, and could almost hear him keeping tally of where everyone stood on the matter and why. The shaykh was a veteran of these councils; not a word, not an inflection, escaped his careful notice.
At length the arguments began to wind down, and positions became set and hardened. Suleim had convinced roughly half the council members of his position—but the other half remained firmly opposed. If a vote were called, the tally would be very close one way or the other—and in the event of a tie, the shaykh would cast the deciding vote.
The shaykh saw this, too, and abruptly called for an end to the debate. “Since the counci
