Reqa'

This article is about (رقاع), the traditional hand of the six proportional scripts. For the hand for fast writing developed in the 19th century (رقعة), see Ruqʿah script.

Reqāʿ (Arabic: رِقَاع, romanized: Riqāʿ) is one of the six scripts of Arabic calligraphy used primarily for letters, edicts, or manuscripts.^[1] Reqa' was used for private correspondence on small papers or for nonreligious books and texts. Ibn al-Nadim mentioned in Al-Fihrist that the inventor of Reqaʿ was al-Fadl ibn Sahl.^{[citation needed]} This script was one of the most popular scripts in the Ottoman Empire. Reqaʿ was gradually simplified by other calligraphers, and was changed into a form called Ruqʿah (رُقعة) or Riqʿah (رِقعة), which is now the most common handwriting script in the Arab world.^[2]