This article is devoted to the initial stage of the formation of the modern genre of short stories in Saudi prose. The initial stage of Enlightenment in the Arabian Peninsula occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century in 1910-1926 during the period of Turkish rule, long before the era of the “oil boom”, and it is associated with the appearance of the first printed publications in the territory of the largest and most developed province of the Ottoman Empire, Hejaz. The extensive spread of educational ideas began in 1926 with the coming to power of Abd al-Aziz Ibn Abd al-Rahman Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia , and it continued until the sixties of the twentieth century. The years of Ibn Saud's rule were the main catalyst for the sluggish current processes of Enlightenment in the Arabian Peninsula, and they gave a powerful impetus to the development of Saudi society. Immigrants from Arab countries, who were earlier in the sphere of European impact, had a great influence on the development of the educational movement and the processes of literary renewal in the Arabian Peninsula. As carriers of advanced ideas of Eurocentrism, they pointed to the need for social transformations and social reforms in Saudi society. Periodicals became the main tool of the Arabian Enlightenment ideologists, they gave them the opportunity to reach the average reader, which allowed them to express their thoughts and opinions on various issues. The national press was not only a vehicle for educational ideas in the Arabian Peninsula, but also it played a more important role than in other Arab countries in the process of establishing a new type of fiction in Saudi literature. The gradual development of the short story genre took place in the course of educational and reformatory appeals, newspaper and magazine articles, and other journalistic genres, which were transformed into works of art, united under the name of educational literature. The first signs of the emergence of the short story genre in Saudi literature date back to the 30’s of the twentieth century. Early examples of narrative art in Saudi literature did not meet the requirements of the short story genre. They lacked a storyline that unites all parts of the work into a single whole, and didactic notes prevailed. The initial stage of the formation of Saudi short story is a period of fascination with a new form of artistic literature, which has a short volume, allows you to quickly respond to changes in reality, as well as it serves as an effective lever for the implementation of educational idea.
