Wikipedia's first sentence called it “umayyad official and islamic scholar”. Today it says “secretary to the last umayyad caliph”.
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
Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( Arabic : عبد الحميد بن يحيى الكاتب ) was the secretary to the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II , and a supreme stylist of early Arabic prose. Quote: Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds He may have been a descendant of a Persian captive at the battle of Qadesiya who became a mawlā (freedman) of the Qorashī clan of the Banu Amer b. Some accounts, however, make the less likely claim that he was of this clan, hence of pure Arab descent. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam (3rd edition), Abd al-Hamid al-Katib was "a third-generation Muslim of non-Arab, probably Persian, extraction". Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.).
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1252927314.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( ) was an Umayyad official and Islamic scholar, a master of Arabic prose . Quote: Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds Mit-Ejmes Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 366844232.
The opening as it stood in 2015 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( ) was the secretary to the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II , and a supreme stylist of early Arabic prose. Quote: Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds Mit-Ejmes Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East Islamic History in Arabia and Middle East
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 583005731.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( ) was the secretary to the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II , and a supreme stylist of early Arabic prose. Quote: Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds He may have been a descendant of a Persian captive at the battle of Qadesiya who became a mawlā of the Qorashī clan of the Banu Amer b.Some accounts, however, make the less likely claim that he was of this clan, hence of pure Arab descent.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 837234670.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Umayyad official, Islamic scholar (8th century) Abd al-Hamid ibn Yahya al-Katib ( ) was the secretary to the last Umayyad Caliph, Marwan II , and a supreme stylist of early Arabic prose. Quote: Cultivate the Arabic language so that you may speak correctly; develop a handsome script which will add luster to your writings; learn the poetry of the Arabs by heart; familiarize yourself with unusual ideas and expressions; read the history of the Arabs and the Persians, and remember their great deeds He may have been a descendant of a Persian captive at the battle of Qadesiya who became a mawlā (freedman) of the Qorashī clan of the Banu Amer b. Some accounts, however, make the less likely claim that he was of this clan, hence of pure Arab descent. According to the Encyclopedia of Islam (3rd edition), Abd al-Hamid al-Katib was "a third-generation Muslim of non-Arab, probably Persian, extraction".Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.).
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1123663901.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “umayyad official and islamic scholar”. Today it says “secretary to the last umayyad caliph”. 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
umayyad official and islamic scholar
Now
secretary to the last umayyad caliph
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.
