The Twins (1930 novel)

The Twins was Al Ansari’s first attempt in writing fiction, and was later followed by another story, Merham Al Tanasi, which was published in Sawt Al Hijaz newspaper. He stated that his incentive for writing The Twins was only to refute Western lies, and not to object against the Western scientific revolution.[3]

The Twins tells the story of Saleem, who had newborn twins named Rasheed and Fareed. On reaching school age, the twins were sent to a preparatory school. After their graduation, Rasheed joined a national school while Fareed joined a foreign one. As time passed, Fareed advanced in his career and grew his social status, thus becoming a well-respected individual. Fareed, on the other hand, ended up in a tragic situation, where he became morally decayed and died afterwards in exile to a foreign state.[4] The Twins is a long novel that falls under the education genre. In the novel’s introduction, Al Ansari states that he wanted to demonstrate ‘The harm foreign institutes in the East can cause to the future of the East, for what it teaches about Westernization and vacillation.’. Despite being the first novel in the modern age by a Saudi author, The Twins was not so much in its artistic construction: "Even though it is not well-formulated based on the origins of the modern art of fiction, the reader might find a proper image of the harm caused by foreign institutes",[1] the author states in the introduction.

It was first printed in 1 Rabi I, 1349 AH (July 26, 1930 CE) by Al Taraqi press in Damascus. It was republished, by Dar Al Manhal for Journalism and Publication Limited, with an introduction by Muhammad Hamdoon.

The Twins is considered the first novel in the history of Saudi literature, and we can go further into saying it is the first novel in the Arabian Peninsula.[5] Moreover, it is considered one of the founder novels of Saudi fiction, which, according to Mansour Al Hazmi, are six:[6]

1. Ghada Oum Al Korra by Ahmed Reda Houhou
2. Fekrah by Ahmed Al Subaie
3. The Twins or al-Tawa’aman by Abd Al Quddus Al Ansari
4. Al Ba’ath by Muhammad Ali Maghrabi
5. Al Zawjah Wa Al Sadiq by Muhammad Omar Tawfiq
6. Al Intiqam Al Tabii by Muhammad Nour Jawhari

The plot events are not lined up in temporal sequence, but are rather controlled by the forced event element, which aligns with the purpose of the novel. It seems that the author had decided what the end of the story will be before its start, and thus the events moved quickly towards the end. What is noticed is how slowly the events were growing in the large part of the story, while upon reaching the end, some events were cut, which left the reader with their outcomes only.[7]

In December 2011, The Twins play brought back the memory of its author. The play had the same title as the novel, and was written and directed by Ali Al Zahrani. It is a monodrama play text, and was performed, for the first time, by two protagonists. The play’s title, The Twins, was inspired from Abd Al Quddus Al Ansari’s Saudi Novel, of which Al Zahrani wanted to preserve the memory. The play’s protagonists were: Abd Al Rahman Khafaji and Abd Al Rahman Fawzi, and was supervised by Saleh Bin Saeed Abu Al Baraa.[8]

• Modern Arabic literature