ABSTRACT
Prose, on the other hand, had evolved more quietly and with much less fuss throughout the centuries, although here too, structure and purpose had seldom undergone paradigmatic transformation. Therefore, when the impact of Europe began to be felt, prose began to respond more readily than poetry, and with little conflict and opposition. Prose fiction, first in the form of the historical novel - a literary genre for which there had been some historical counterpart in the classics - began to emerge from the mid-nineteenth century. This prepared the ground for the later, and more advanced, works of writers such as 'Abd al-Rahim Taliboff and Zain al-'Abidin Maraghah'i who by then were openly concerned with modern ideas as well as social issues.'
