1. Introduction
Moroccan culture in the precolonial era devoted much of its history to theology and military endeavours. The medieval literature studied today at schools and universities in Morocco is not genuinely Moroccan. Instead, it is Andalusian literature that migrated once to medieval Morocco, carrying the Arab-Islamic legacy after Andalusia fell under Spanish control at the end of the fifteenth century. Since Morocco's cultural identity was established and notable poets emerged, such as Abderrahman El Mejdoub (16th century), Sidi Bahloul Shergui (17th century), and Sidi Kaddour El Alami (19th century)—many specialising in mystic poetry and using dialectal Arabic as a linguistic tool—However, during the colonial era (1912-1955), Moroccans experienced a civilisational shock. They realised how far behind the times they were and recognised the need to address two challenges: liberating their country from Franco-Spanish colonisation and adopting the best aspects of Western civilisation as a foundation for their postcolonial project. Consequently, many fields of knowledge were imported, including the sciences. Some social and human sciences, initially suppressed or censored due to friction with colonial authorities, were later revived in new forms, such as drama, or introduced for the first time, like novels and short stories. Sixty years later, Morocco became the centre of short story-writing in both North Africa and the entire Arab world. This recognition is now strengthened by Morocco's adoption of a new form of narrative that remains uncommon elsewhere: Flash Fiction.
The modern legend states that Ernest Hemingway—perhaps at Harry's Bar or Luchow's—once wagered with some friends that he could make them cry with a short story of just six words. If he won the bet, each person would pay ten dollars. Hemingway's six-word story was: "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." He won the bet. He achieved two victories: in the bar, he earned money; and in literature, he gained a reputation as a pioneer of flash fiction and the creator of extremely brief stories. Hemingway's story can be interpreted as follows: After nine months of pregnancy, the mother, gazing at her newborn—who is either dead or disabled—and the shoes bought for him that he would never wear, feels she has no choice but to abandon those shoes that symbolise her deep disappointment. Consequently, she puts them up for sale with a sign reading: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
That was Ernest Hemingway's first very short story, and the first short-short story ever written, which remained a mere literary challenge in the archive for more than three decades. Only in the late 1950s and early 1960s could the world see Hemingway's narrative seed blossom and flourish, but in Latin America. Then, the experience would thrive in other parts of the world, including the Arab world (Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco). Now, one century after its invention, where has flash fiction been up to? Does flash fiction enjoy any distinctive features compared to other literary genres, text types, and forms? Is flash fiction welcomed worldwide? Why do Moroccan writers engage in writing flash fiction? Why is Morocco regarded as the capital of flash fiction in the Arab world? Does the Moroccan short short story offer any added value to flash fiction globally?
1. Literary Geography of North Africa
Hungry readers eager to broaden their research in the field of human sciences are likely to be among the first to explore books such as Cultural Geography by Mike Crang (1998), Political Geography by Peter Tyler and Colin Flint (2000), and The Geography of Thought by Richard E. Nisbett (2004). With the potential to examine the geographies of culture, thought, and politics, it also becomes possible to discuss literary geography and critical geography, while recognising that there are additional sub-fields: poetic geography, dramatic geography, narrative geography, and other minor geographies. Against this backdrop, North African literature, spanning from Morocco in the northwest to Egypt in the northeast, has experienced a diverse range of literary genres and forms during its literary renaissance. However, while Egyptian literature — from the mid-ninth century to the present — has flourished across nearly all major literary forms recognised worldwide, literature in the Maghreb has tended to specialise.
In the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania), each country specialises in a specific literary genre, allowing some room for other genres to survive at a lower level. Therefore, Algeria is renowned for novel writing, producing distinguished authors such as Assia Djebar, Tahar Ouettar, Waciny Laredj, Ahlem Mosteghanemi, and many others; Tunisia excels in standard Arabic poetry, creating influential poets like Abou el Kacem Chebbi; Mauritania, the Land of the One-Million Poets, concentrates on dialectal Arabic poetry; Morocco is celebrated for short stories, with notable writers such as Mohamed Choukri and Mohamed Zefzaf, and for flash fiction—a growing narrative form that has gained ground in Morocco, as well as in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
2. Morocco as a Capital of Short Fiction in North Africa
Morocco remains the leading capital of both short fiction and flash fiction in North Africa. Statistics show that the collections of short stories published in Morocco, from the 1950s to the first decade of the third millennium, amount to roughly 600 collections. Compared to the same literary form published in Algeria and Tunisia, Morocco publishes twice as many. It is a literary honour upheld by the dedication of men and women writers who have devoted themselves to writing short stories over the past sixty years, with targets that have changed from era to era: short story versus outdated writing traditions, short story versus colonisation, short story versus class culture in society, and nowadays, short story against the challenges of modern life...
Short story appeared in Moroccan literature for the first time in the late 1940s of the twentieth century with Abdelmajid Benjelloun, an accomplished short-story writer from Great Britain, where he was born. He moved to Morocco, his homeland, which was still under French occupation at that time. His stories contributed to the rising tide of patriotism, peaking in the mid-fifties with the Declaration of Independence. After independence, Moroccan short stories, especially in the sixties, gradually shifted away from patriotism and aligned with progressive movements, left-wing parties, and labour unions in their fight against class society, capitalism, and imperialism. Prominent writers of that era included Mohamed Choukri, Driss El Khouri, Abderrahmane Tazi, and Mohamed Zefzaf. In the seventies, a new wave of writers emerged, such as Ahmed Bouzeffour, who rejected all previous symbols and slogans and explored the depths of the Inner Self, specialising in the world of dreams, narrating and analysing them. In the eighties and nineties, for the first time, women's voices were expected to balance and democratise the genre in Morocco. Among these female writers were Zahra Ziraoui, Rabia Raihane, Zohra Ramij, and many others.
3. Flash Fiction in Morocco
With the first decade of the new millennium, a couple of shocks resonated in the landscape of Moroccan short stories. The first shock came from a newer generation of short-story writers (Mohamed Saïd Raïhani, along with fifty other writers) advocating the importance of addressing The Three Missing Keys (or Themes) from Moroccan Literature: Dream, Freedom and Love. The second shock came from new writers who identified as Flash Fiction authors and declared Flash Fiction as their distinctive literary speciality. Some of these names are Abdallah Mouttaqi, Ezzeddine Maazi, Hamid Rakkata, Hassan Bertal, Smail El Bouyahyaoui, Saadia Bahadda, and many others.
Abdallah Al-Mouttaqi, to begin with, is a Moroccan flash-fiction writer, born in 1961 in Fkih Ben Saleh. He published al-Kursī al-Azraq (i.e., The Blue Chair) in Arabic in 2005. The second flash-fiction writer, Ezzeddine Maazi, was born in 1960 in Sidi Ismael, near El Jadida City. He is the author of Ḥubb ʻalá ṭarīqat al-kibār (i.e., Love the Way Grown-Ups Do It) in 2006, and Qubulāt fī al-Hawāʼ (i.e. Kisses in the Air) in 2011. There is also Hamid Rakkata, from Khénifra City, author of Dumūʻu Farāshah (i.e., A Butterfly's Tears) in 2010…
Hassan Bertal belongs to the same generation of Moroccan flash fiction writers. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He published in Arabic Abrāj (i.e. Zodiac Signs) in 2006, Qaws quzaḥ (i.e. Rainbow) in 2009, Samfūniyat al-Babbaghāʼ (i.e. Parrot’s Symphony) in 2012, and many other collections of flash fiction. Smail El Bouyahyaoui is another notable Moroccan flash-fiction writer. He published in Arabic Ashrabu Wamīḍ al-Ḥibr (i.e. I drink the gleam of Ink) in 2008, Ṭūfān (i.e. Deluge) in 2009, and Qaṭf al-Aḥlām (i.e. Picking Dreams Up) in 2010. Many lady writers in Morocco who has chosen flash fiction as their narrative form, including Saadia Bahadda , who published Waqqa’a Mtidadahu Wa Rahal (i.e. He Signed His Extension and Left) in 2009, and Wayk, Mudda al-Baṣar! (i.e. Oh, Have a Look!) in 2013.
Ultimately, there is Mohamed Saïd Raïhani, a Moroccan writer and author of over thirty works in the fields of translation studies, literary criticism, comparative literature, and fiction writing. He is a member of the Moroccan Writers' Union. He holds a Phd in Translation Studies from King Fahd Advanced School of Translation (Tangier/Morocco) in 2023, an M.A. in Creative Writing (English Literature) from Lancaster University (United Kingdom) in 2017, an M.A. in Translation, Communication & Journalism from King Fahd Advanced School of Translation (Tangier/Morocco) in 2015, and a B.A. in English Literature from Abdelmalek Essaadi University (Tétouan/Morocco) in 1991.
4. Samples of Moroccan Flash Fiction
4.1. Four Very Short Stories by Saadia Bahadda
4.1.1. Accusation (Tuhmah)
Smoke gradually rose over Rome.
They accused Nero, who was neither wise nor mad.
Ask Tacitus, and he will tell you the truth:
"It was Rome that set Nero on fire".[1]
4.1.2. Mill (Ṭāḥūnah)
Initially, he would turn the mill according to his mood.
Now, the mill turns him following its mood.[2]
4.1.3. Oblivion (Nisyān)
In the past, you used to play your favourite game, sliding above the words.
Now, words developed a similar hobby, sliding out of your head.[3]
4.1.4. He signed his extension and left (Waqqa'a Mtidadahu wa-Raḥal)
He passed by her, looked into her eyes and had her looking into his.
She passed by him, smiled at him and had him smiling at her.
Ever since, he no longer passes by.
She felt her stomach and confirmed he had signed his presence and left forever.
4.2. Two Very Short Stories by Ezzeddine Maazi
4.2.1. The Rain in the Garden (Maṭar fī al-Ḥadīqah)
With the blue ballpoint pen, pencil, ruler, cherries and the yellow-covered blank copybook on her table, the little schoolgirl sharpens both her thinking and her nerves to keep listening to the school mistress sitting on her leather chair:
"Period of plastic arts for third-grade pupils. We will learn how to draw clouds, rainfall, and the formation of ponds and swamps by inclined hatching using colour pencils"...
The talented girl sharpens her pencil and leans forward to draw line after line, closed circles, dots, curved shapes, trees, fruits... alternately colouring with coloured pencils and sharpening them one by one.
High above, there is the vast blue sea. In the rest of the painting, a question mark appears. She was painting what was running through her mind.
The schoolmistress stands beside the blackboard to explain the techniques for drawing before walking along the rows again to examine her pupils' works.
On paper, it rains so heavily that the little girl becomes very sad. Her painting is stained with her tears. She feels sorry for the demolition of the houses, the collapse of the buildings, and the scattering of the flowers in the garden...[4]
4.2.2. Ismaen’s Painting (Lawḥatu Ismāʻīn)
Little Isma'en sat before the strange painting to meditate on it.
It was a work by a painter who had created a blank space with a black square within it.
He began singing.
He turned right and left to see if anybody cared.
Suddenly, he had a prompt wish to get into the same blank space that the painter has left empty.[5]
4.3. Three Very Short Stories by Mohamed Saïd Raïhani
4.3.1. Revolution (Thawrah)
"Long live Pougatchev, leader of the peasants' revolution!"
"Long live Pougatchev, leader of the rebellious peasants!"
"Long live Pougatchev, long live Pougatchev!" screamed the thirty thousand peasants revolting against the policy of Empress Catherine II. They were brandishing their guns behind Pougatchev, a military deserter who claimed himself the legitimate Emperor, commonly believed to have been slain by Catherine II. Pougatchev's followers were poor farmers who believed in his promises to abolish the feudal system, liberate all the serfs, and give the peasants the land they worked on.
Mounted on his horse, Pougatchev led the parade towards the major cities, quite confident in his strength, the loyalty of his followers, and the blessing he received from the monks along the way. Suddenly, he dismounted in terror, fleeing among the rocks and weeds in the valleys, seeking shelter and pursued by his followers, who had learned that Empress Katherine the Great was offering a legendary reward to anyone who could deliver her Emelian Ivanovitch Pougatchev, dead or alive.[6]
4.3.2. Job Revolution (Ayyūb)
The man pushes forth a cart in which a baby cries hysterically for the milk that has run out of his bottle:
"Be patient, Job!"
The child keeps on crying.
The man carries on:
"Patience is the key to Salvation, Job!"
The child's hysteria is always on:
"Everything is to an end, Job!"
Another man passing by asked him:
"It seems that your words did nothing to ease the pain that your child, Job, is feeling!"
The man replied:
"' Job' is my name, and patience is all I need".[7]
4.3.3. Nietzscheist (Nitshawiyyah)
The prostitute insisted on receiving the agreed-upon payment in advance before following her customer to the nearby forest. She was whispering out her words playfully and moving erotically her curves and humps when a mugger surprised them waving about a sword in his left hand, and reaching out to the prostitute's breasts with his right hand.
Furious, the customer attacked his rival. They fell to the ground, rolling around in all directions and calling out to each other in anger. At the same time, the prostitute, safe under an oak tree, sensuously undressed herself, preparing to celebrate victory with the winner.
4.3.4. The Man & the Dog (al-Rajul wa-al-kalb)
The prison guards often wondered why a dog was kept in the same cell as a new inmate. After considerable patience and curiosity, they discovered that the dog had not accepted the verdict which separated him from his friend, who fainted immediately after being sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.
When the guards nudged the plate of food and the loaf of bread under the cell door with the tips of their boots, they kept their eyes on the keyhole to closely observe the reactions of the two inmates on either side of the plate.
At first, the man ate bread dipped in the sauce and left the bone for the dog.
Then, when the inmates were served salted buffalo, the man ate the piece of meat that floated on the sauce and left the bone for the dog.
Later, when the authorities allowed the prison kitchens to cook chicken, the man ate the only chicken thigh on his plate and left the bone for the dog.
Finally, when the inmates were served hamburgers for the first time, on the occasion of an anticipated visit by a foreign delegation representing an international human rights organisation, the man gulped down the entire ration without leaving anything for the dog, who could hardly believe his own eyes.
Who remained silent for a long time, staring at his friend,
Who started to moan and moan,
Who flew into a fit of raging bark,
Who attacked his friend and devoured him?[8]
4.4. Three Very Short Stories by Hamid Rakkata
4.4.1. Pirates (Qarāṣinah)
He won all his battles high in the seas and mountains, but lost his fight with the woman who suddenly sailed inside him.[9]
4.4.2. Local Informer (Mukhbir al-Ḥayy)
From behind his dark glasses, the informer, sitting in the distant corner of the café and looking straight down the boulevard, counted people's breaths and believed himself to be unnoticed and unseen by the passers-by. At the same time, children on the other side of the street winked at one another and sneered at how he was seated and the unbuttoned trousers he exposed to the passers-by.
4.4.3. Apple-Girl (Bāʼiʻat al-Tuffāḥ)
In his absent-mindedness beneath the old apple tree, she was courting him.
A small apple fell straight onto his heart.
He snapped out of his thoughts and eagerly ran to get it.
She left him, grabbing a couple of young apples, feeling so sorry for men's foolishness and the futility of all-season fruits.
4.5. Four Very Short Stories by Hassan Bertal
4.5.1. Cold and the Enemy (al-Bard wālʻaduw)
He was taught to face the enemy on the battlefield as he faces the cold in winter. So, he went to war dressed in a hat, a coat, and a pair of gloves.[10]
4.5.2. Walking Back (al-Rujūʻ ilá al-warāʼ)
He refused to go back, back in time.
When he rushed to win the race, he found himself in the prehistoric era.[11]
4.5.3. Incest (Zinā al-Maḥārim)
Suddenly, she discovered she was pregnant illegally.
She could not accept the newly born baby as her own.
She accused her father of incest and took the baby as her brother.[12]
4.5.4. Anti-Feminism (Muʻādāt al-Niswīyyah)
He fought to free his people. When the goal was achieved, he refused to free his wife.[13]
4.6. Two Very Short Stories by Abdallah Al-Mouttaqi
4.6.1. Pay Attention, Please! (Intabih, min Faḍlik!)
He forgot to take off his pyjamas and slowly went downstairs.
No one paid attention: neither the building keeper, the passers-by, the friends in the café, nor even the waiter.
Only the mirror noticed that, on that very evening, when he was turning his clothes upside down in the bedroom wardrobe, looking for his pyjamas.[14]
4.6.2. The Day before Eid (Masāʼu al-ʻĪd)
The child came back home in such ecstasy.
He was happy with the brand-new clothes and the coins collected from his relatives.
Before his mother laid the dinner table, her voice pursued him:
"Come on, kid. Take off your clothes and spare them for the coming feast!"[15]
4.7. Three Very Short Stories by Smail Elbouyahyaoui
4.7.1. Exchange (Muqāyaḍah)
The first took his hand out of his pocket.
The second took a smile out of his stomach.
The first warms his pocket with a smile.
The second warms his stomach with a coin.[16]
4.7.2. Divorce (Ṭalāq)
As he put his head on the pillow, he found out that he had two heads: the first head in terra incognita of sleep and the second one caressing a short-short story.
He damned darkness and called for the pen's help to accomplish his short-short story.
In the morning, the sleeping head refused to stick to the writing one.
He divorced the sleeping one and carried on with a "short-short" head.
4.7.3. Liberation (Taḥrīr)
I took my bird out of its cage and placed it on my palm. It rested, awaiting the final farewell moment.
My bird looked at me. He cleaned my wings, detained in my eternal cage. He gave me a feather as a memory. He kissed my forehead, gathered his wings, and set me free. [17]
5. Conclusion
Throughout history, Morocco has faced criticism from cultural figures in the Arab Mashreq for copying their culture and arts, then re-exporting them back to the Mashreq. After gaining independence in 1956, Morocco also achieved greater autonomy in various areas, including freedom from the influence of the Arab Mashreq. Since then, Morocco has developed new traditions in culture, thought, art, and literature, with distinctly Moroccan features. Today, after sixty years of independence, Moroccan culture has established itself as a prominent leader within the Arab world in areas such as philosophy, criticism, and literature. This respected position has allowed Moroccan culture to play a pioneering role in introducing new literary forms, such as flash fiction, across Arab countries by organising festivals, encouraging efforts of Arab literary activists, and launching awards to promote this emerging genre.
While flash fiction remains unwelcome in many countries and many academic institutions worldwide, including Western universities, literary choices in Morocco have taken an independent path and a different direction. Certainly, flash fiction is neither well-defined nor clearly distinguished from related forms of expression that share the same conciseness, such as haiku, proverb, saying, joke, and telegraphic message. However, progress is happening rapidly across many areas: conceptualisation, literary criticism, and creative writing. Currently, notable examples are published in both print and digital formats, with prominent writers being read throughout Arab countries, from the Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. Nonetheless, the beautiful Moroccan literary achievement is still on the horizon.
At the level of recommendation, flash fiction in Morocco is still working to establish itself within modern literature across three levels. The first concerns terminology, the second relates to length, and the third pertains to the spirit of narration itself.
At the first level, the terminology, like in most modern literature worldwide, lacks consensus on the term that should refer to this newly developed narrative form and distinguish it from other similar expressions. Some writers identify themselves as flash fiction writers (in Arabic, Al-Qissah Al-Wamdah). Others see themselves as very short story writers (in Arabic, Al-Qissah Al-Qassirah Jiddan). Some consider themselves as short-short story writers (in Arabic, Qa Qa Ja). The fourth and final category adopts the earliest term ever coined in Morocco: One-Minute-Story. This term was created by the pioneer of flash fiction, Mohammed Ibrahim Bouallou, who used it for all his short writings published in the daily Moroccan newspaper, representing his political party in the 1980s.
However, today more than ever, a unanimously accepted term is urgently needed to distinguish this emerging narrative form. Attention is also necessary. There must be a clear distinction between the field being discussed and the piece of writing in question. For the field referenced, the appropriate term suggested is "Flash Fiction," which corresponds in Arabic to "Assard Al Wajeez." Conversely, the suitable term for a piece of writing belonging to the realm of flash fiction is "Very Short Story," which in Arabic is "Al-Qissah Al-Qassirah Jiddan." There should be a single term to set "Flash Fiction" apart from other narrative forms, such as "short story" and "novel." The term "Short story" is commonly associated with realistic writing, whereas "Text" can describe experimental works and highlight their rebellious nature. Conversely, "Novel" is a term used to portray real life and real people expressing themselves in everyday language, sometimes with a specific accent. In contrast, "Romance" is used to depict divine-like characters in exotic settings, speaking in an elevated language.
At the second level, regarding length, there is no consensus on the standard length of flash fiction that has been established so far. Some flash fiction writers, throughout their careers, have remained loyal to the one-line (or two-line) text pattern, like Hassan Bertal does. Others have adopted a freer approach, alternating between the two-line and the five-line formats depending on the effect they aim for, as Saadia Bahadda and Hamid Rakkata often do. The third group of Moroccan flash fiction writers uses a four-line pattern. Examples of such writers include Abdallah Al-Mouttaqi and Smail Elbouyahyaoui. The fourth and final group consists of writers who continue to follow the spirit of Ibrahim Boualou's "One-minute's time story," a short piece ranging between five and twenty lines, which corresponds roughly to a one-minute reading duration.
Accordingly, Moroccan flash fiction, like its Latin American counterparts, has yet to settle on a definitive form for this narrative style. Similar to Latin American flash fiction writers (Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Augusto Monterroso, Pablo Urbani, Raul Brasca, Eduardo Galeano, Fernando Ainsa, Julio Torri, Virgilio Piñera, Marco Denevi, Juan Sabia, Leon Garcia Marquez, and Fabia Vique…), Moroccan flash-fiction authors are still exploring many shorter narrative forms, ranging from one line to a full page. Only one writer from Latin America and one from Morocco have committed to the one-line (or two-line) pattern: Juan José Arreola and Hassan Bertal. Therefore, the question of length in flash fiction remains open, and the one-line (or two-line) pattern of Juan José Arreola and Hassan Bertal stands as a compelling model to follow.
At the third level, the realm of narratology, Moroccan flash fiction flourishes alongside five neighbouring text types: the proverb, the saying, the joke, the haiku, and the telegraphic message. It shares many qualities with these five types of texts: the brevity of the piece, the minimalist style that conveys data without unnecessary details, and the use of clear words with few syllables but rich connotations. However, Moroccan flash fiction differs from the above-mentioned text types in several ways. The first difference is that it suppresses humour by the end of the very short story to avoid any confusion with jokes and anecdotes. A second difference is that flash fiction maintains a respectful distance from fable and moral preaching, unlike proverbs, maxims, and sayings. A third difference is that, linguistically and stylistically, flash fiction is not as dry as the telegraphic message, which deals with bare facts stripped of their outer symbolic references. Lastly, flash fiction is not a prose version of a haiku, as it remains true to the spirit of linear progression of events—from the initial situation through the crisis to the resolution.
[1] Bahadda, Saadia: Waqqa'a Mtidadahu Wa Rahal [In English: "He Signed His Extension and Left”] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Casablanca/Morocco: al-Ṣālūn al-Adabī, 2009). p.77.
[2] Ibid. p.17.
[3] Ibid. p.21.
[4] Maazi, Ezzeddine: Ḥubb ʻalá ṭarīqat al-kibār [In English:"Love the Way Grown-Ups Do It] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Morocco: Dār Walīlī, 2006). p.38.
[5] Maazi. Ḥubb ʻalá ṭarīqat al-kibār. p.56.
[6] Raïhani, Mohamed Saïd: Ḥāʼ al-Ḥurrīyah [In English: The Key of Freedom] (Fifty Very Short Stories). 1st Edition. (Rabat/Morocco: Ministry of Culture, Silsilat Ibdāʻ, 2014). p. 33.
[7] Raïhani, Mohamed Saïd: “Ayyūb” [In English: "Job"]. Majarrah Magazine. Issue 13. Kénitra (Morocco): al-Būkīlī lil-Ṭibāʻah, Autumn, 2008. pp 164-166..
[8] Raïhani, Mohamed Saïd: Ḥāʼ al-Ḥurrīyah . Op. Cit. pp. 35-36.
[9] Rakkata, Hamid: Dumūʻu Farāshah [In English: Butterfly's Tears] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Rabat/Morocco: Al-Tannūkhi, 2010). p. 42.
[10] Bertal, Hassan: Abrāj [In English: Signs of Zodiac] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Rabat/Morocco: Ministry of Culture, Al-Kitab Al-Awwal, 2006). p.15.
[11] Ibid. p.16.
[12] Ibid. p.25.
[13] Ibid. p.27.
[14] Al-Mouttaqi, Abdallah: al-Kursī al-Azraq [In English: The Blue Chair] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Casablanca/Morocco: Manshūrat Majmū’at al-Baḥth fi al-Qissah al-Qaṣīrah fi al-Maghrib, 2005). p.26.
[15] Ibid. p.16.
[16] El Bouyahyaoui, Smail: Ashrabu Wamīḍ al-Ḥibr [In English: I Drink the Gleam of Ink] (Flash Fiction). 1st Edition. (Casablanca/Morocco: Manshūrāt al-Zawiyah, 2005). p.67.
[17] Ibid. p.11.
Original Reference:
Mohamed Saïd Raïhani: "Flash Fiction in Morocco: Pioneering Pens & Translated
Samples". Ibn Khaldoun Journal for Studies and Research. Volume 1, Issue 2,
