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. 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. 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.