Although the term muḥaqqaq as a script or style of handwriting appears in a number of early sources, it is far from clear what its salient features were. Moreover, some of these sources explore the term muḥaqqaq not as a particular script, but as a standard of handwriting. Thus, for instance, aṣ-Ṣūlī (d. 335/946), to begin with the earliest text, says that “the best looking of scripts is the delicate muḥaqqaq, with its rounded letters, its open (maftūḥ) ṣ's and ṭ's, and its slurred or curtained (muxtalis) t's and ḥ's” (Abbott 1939:29).

ʾAbū Ḥayyān at-Tawḥīdī (d. after 400/1009), the author of R…