Microfiction, flash fiction or very short story in modern Arabic literature

In the beginning of the 20th century, Arabic prose developed significantly, after moving away from the traditional writing patterns full of contrived rhymes and unnecessary structural decoration, which appears at the expense of meaning. The new literary genres differed and diversified, and as a result the traits of modern narrative forms became clear. The forms of story varied from long to medium, and from novella to a short story, until a new type was formed which took many terms, the most prominent of which is microfiction, or qiṣṣa qaṣīra jiddan (very short story). Since the 1970s, this narrative genre has begun to take a notable place in Arabic prose, which has been recognized by numerous critics and writers. As the Iraqi critic Bāsim Ḥammūdī asserts, the harbingers of the very short story in the Arab world occurred in 1930. This study focuses on examining and analysing various examples from the works of three writers whose stories have expressed the extent of development of this new art, and its constancy as a literary genre clearly defined in modern Arabic prose. The stories studied are samples of works by writers from different Arab countries: Maḥmūd Shuqayr (Palestine), Ibrāhīm Darġūthī (Tunisia), and Muḥammad Ḥijjū (Morocco).