At-Tahkim
التحكيم
Arbitration of honour tensions — then, if needed, a trial under rule.
At-tahkim designates, in classical Arabic, recourse to a third party to decide. At Riad Al-Uns it orders speech first, then — only if speech is not enough — a trial drawn from the disciplines of the house.
It does not replace the authority of the Ash-Shaykh. It gives peers a path to close what, left to rancour, would poison the table and the workshop. See also At-Tadbir and furusiyya.
FIRST STAGE
Arbitration
I
The third muqaddam
For a light tension between ṣāniʿ — pride, a sharp word, workshop rivalry — a muqaddam who is not party to the conflict hears both, in turn, without interruption. He proposes a closing.
II
The majlis of muqaddam
Two or three muqaddam (odd number). A maalem sits if the matter touches the craft. Used when the first arbiter is too close to one side, or when the case requires it.
III
The Ash-Shaykh
He decides — possibly assisted by the faqīh — what touches the rule of the house, faith, a guest, or too wide a difference of grade. These matters do not go to trial.
The arbiter proposes an outcome: a word held, a gesture of repair, a shared duty, silence on a point. If both accept, the matter is closed. Whoever refuses to appear without serious cause goes to the superior, not to the trial.
Grades concerned: ṣāniʿ and ṣāniʿ; ṣāniʿ and nāʾib. A conflict with a maalem or the shaykh is not matter for trial, but falls under authority.
وَإِن طَائِفَتَانِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اقْتَتَلُوا فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا
“If two groups of believers fight, make peace between them.” — Qur’an 49:9
SECOND STAGE
The trial
If arbitration has not closed the matter and both consent, the third party orders a trial drawn from disciplines already practised. The form is not chosen by those who are angry. Witnesses of the house attend. The third party declares the beginning and the end.
المصارعة
al-musaraa
Musaraa
Regulated wrestling. It measures control of anger and respect for the limit. The most natural form when pride has been hurt in the body-to-body of common life.
One does not seek to break the other, but resists, yields when the rule says so, rises again. The third party stops the bout. Afterwards, silence.
لَيْسَ الشَّدِيدُ بِالصُّرَعَةِ، إِنَّمَا الشَّدِيدُ الَّذِي يَمْلِكُ نَفْسَهُ عِنْدَ الْغَضَبِ
“The strong man is not the one who throws others down in wrestling; the strong man is the one who controls himself in anger.” — hadith (Bukhari, Muslim)
الرمي
al-ramy
Ramy
Archery. Calm under the gaze. Used when physical contact would be excessive for the matter, and precision under pressure says more than force.
Same bow, same distance, same number of arrows. Who trembles has lost before releasing. The trial forms the eye and the breath as much as it closes the dispute.
وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُم مَّا اسْتَطَعْتُم مِّن قُوَّةٍ
“Prepare against them whatever you are able of power.” — Qur’an 8:60. Tradition reads here, among other things, shooting.
الفروسية
al-furusiyya
Furusiyya
Race or seat under rule, only if both are trained. Rare. It measures mastery of the self more than the defeat of the other — the same lesson as the colt and the bit.
The horse is not an instrument of vanity. Whoever launches it to humiliate has already lost the trial in the eyes of the house.
الْخَيْلُ مَعْقُودٌ فِي نَوَاصِيهَا الْخَيْرُ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ
“Goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until the Day of Judgement.” — hadith (Bukhari)
الحرفة
al-hirfa
Hirfa
Same gesture, same time, under the eye of the maalem. When the tension was born in the workshop. What carries the day is not vanity, but patience and the steadiness of the hand.
A panel of zellige, a line of calligraphy, a wood joint: the work decides. The maalem declares the end. Pride that wanted to “win” discovers it had only to do well.
“The work is the witness; the hand, the accused.” — craft saying, in the spirit of the futuwwa of the corporations.
RULE
What holds the trial
Admitted
- Consent of both
- Form chosen by the third party
- Witnesses of the house
- Beginning and end declared
- Victory of who held the rule of the trial
- Silence afterwards: the matter is not reopened
Excluded
- Real weapons, blood, brawl
- Public humiliation or outside public
- Matters of faith, of rule, of guests
- Too wide a difference of grade
- Punishment disguised as a trial
- Revenge on the same matter
The regulated trial is not an exception to the ban on violence. Outside this procedure, under this third party and these forms, raising a hand remains a cause for removal. The internal rule (art. 1 and art. 11) sets this frame.
Who wins does not tell the story. Who loses does not undo himself in words. The house has seen; that is enough. It is the same head that futuwwa forms: hold, then leave.