François Déroche schreibt zum Fragment KFQ 54 (Déroche,  The Abbasid Tradition, London 1992, S. 90): "41 / Five folios / 9th century AD / 27.5 x 36.8cm with / 15 lines to the page / Material Parchment / Text area 18.3 x 28cm / Script Style D.IV / Documentation A notice of attribution / Accession no. KFQ 52 / Other fragments from the same Qurʾan / Istanbul, Nuruosmaniye Library, MS.27 / (Lings 1976, nos 3 and 4; Ülker 1987, pp.105, 107); and Sotheby´s, London, 11 October 1991, lot no. 882 (one folio) / These folios once formed part of the same Qurʾan as a manuscript in the Nuruosmaniye Library in Istanbul. This Qurʾan was in two parts, of which the first seems to have been lost. The Nuruosmaniye manuscript contains most of the second half, starting with Sūrat Maryam (XIX), verse I. A later note on folio Ia attributes it to ʿAli ibn Abi Talib. The five folios in the Khalili Collection contain Sūrat al-qaṣaṣ (XXVIII), verse 70, to Sūrat al-ʿankabūt (XXIX), verse 40, and they would originally have been located between folios 66 and 67 of the Nuruosmaniye manuscript. / The text is written in gold and outlined in ink; the diacritical strokes are also in ink. Red dots indicate the vocalization. The end of every verse is marked by an oblique gold dash. Every fifth verse ends with a gold Kufic hāʾ within a circle, while every tenth verse ends with a letter giving the number of verses in the abjad system within a square surrounded by dots. / At the end of Sūrat al-qaṣaṣ, the total number of verses in this surah has been recorded in abjad within a square similar to those used for groups of ten verses. This is followed by a decorative band with floral motifs on a red ground and the title and verse count of Sūrat al-ʿankabūt in gold. The last two letters of the verse count appear in a square at the end of the band. / Besides the chrysography, the main feature of the material in both the Khalili Collection and the Nuruosmaniye Library is the frame that surrounds the text on every folio. This consists of a band roughly 0.8cm wide filled with interlace patterns which rely for their effect on the opposition between the white fillets and coloured dots (gold, green and red). Each page has been conceived independently, and the patterns vary greatly, from simple rope designs to far more intricate ones. The band is interrupted at each corner and in the centre of each side by a small square which contains a cruciform interlace motif in gold on a red and green ground. A vignette extends into the margin from a point adjacent to the square in the middle of the outer side of the frame. The shape of the vignette is similar to that of the vase vignettes seen in cat. 17, but the vase has been replaced by winged elements, from which sprout gold pine cones and pomegranates. / In the material from this manuscript in the Nuruosmaniye Library, a catchword has been added in cursive script on the verso of every folio, probably during the restoration of the volume in the Ottoman period. Theses catchwords do not occur in the folios in the Khalili Collection, which suggests that they were detached from the main body of the manuscript some time before the restoration. / The parchment used in this manuscript was prepared so carefully that it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the hair side from the flesh side. This enhances the effect of every double page, for the usual striking differences in the appearance of the two sides is entirely missing here. The care taken in assembling this manuscript is also shown by the make-up of the quires. Most early Qurʾans on parchment have quires of ten folios made up of a mixture of bifolios and single folios, but in this case they all seem to have contained eight folios in the form of four bifolios: one of the five folios in the Khalili Collection is in fact part of a bifolio that has been cut in two. These observations appear to confirm the impression that the Qurʾan from which these leaves came was a manuscript of the highest quality which was produced at great expense to the patron."

• Déroche, François: The Abbasid Tradition. Qurʾans of the 8th to the 10th centuries AD. Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, London 1992.