Wikipedia's first sentence called it “book by the prolific noted writer on sufism”. Today it says “non-fiction book by the sufist writer”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
A Perfumed Scorpion is a non-fiction book by the Sufist writer, Idries Shah , that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978, the same year that he published two other major works: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way and The Hundred Tales of Wisdom . It has since been republished by The Idries Shah Foundation . Shortly before he died, Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfill the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, A Perfumed Scorpion can be read as part of a whole course of study.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1258368516.
The opening as it stood in 2010
A Perfumed Scorpion is a book by the prolific noted writer on Sufism , Idries Shah , that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978, the same year as he published two other major works: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way and The Hundred Tales of Wisdom . Shortly before he died, Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfill the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, A Perfumed Scorpion can be read as part of a whole course of study.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 351166131.
The opening as it stood in 2015
A Perfumed Scorpion is a book by the prolific noted writer on Sufism , Idries Shah , that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978, the same year that he published two other major works: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way and The Hundred Tales of Wisdom . Shortly before he died, Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfill the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, A Perfumed Scorpion can be read as part of a whole course of study.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 592854875.
The opening as it stood in 2020
A Perfumed Scorpion is a non-fiction book by the Sufist writer, Idries Shah , that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978, the same year that he published two other major works: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way and The Hundred Tales of Wisdom . Shortly before he died, Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfill the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, A Perfumed Scorpion can be read as part of a whole course of study.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 938761346.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
A Perfumed Scorpion is a non-fiction book by the Sufist writer, Idries Shah , that was first published by Octagon Press in 1978, the same year that he published two other major works: Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way and The Hundred Tales of Wisdom . It has since been republished by The Idries Shah Foundation . Shortly before he died, Shah stated that his books form a complete course that could fulfill the function he had fulfilled while alive. As such, A Perfumed Scorpion can be read as part of a whole course of study.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1171681527.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “book by the prolific noted writer on sufism”. Today it says “non-fiction book by the sufist writer”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
book by the prolific noted writer on sufism
Now
non-fiction book by the sufist writer
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
