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Al-Farazdaq

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “arab poet”. Today it says “a 7th-century arab poet and orator who was born in the rashidun caliphate of umar and flourished during the uma”.
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.
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The opening as it read in 2005

Tammam ibn Ghalib Abu Firas , commonly known as al-Farazdaq (Ar.1 "lump of dough") (c. 641 - c. 728 or 730 ), was an Arab poet . He was born at Basra .2 He was of the Dgrim , one of the most respected divisions of the Bani Tamim , and his mother was of the tribe of Dabba . His grandfather Sasa was a Bedouin of great repute, his father Ghalib followed the same manner of life until Basra was founded, and was famous for his generosity and hospitality.3 At the age of fifteen Farazdaq was known as a poet, and though checked for a short time by the advice of the caliph Ali to devote his attention to the study of the Qur'an , he soon returned to making verse. In the true Bedouin spirit he devoted his talent largely to satire and attacked the Bani Nahshal and the bani Fuqaim . When Ziyad , a member of the latter tribe, became governor of Basra in 669 , the poet was compelled to flee, first to Kufa , and then, as he was still too near Ziyad, to Madinah , where he was well received by Said ibn al-As . Here he remained about ten years, writing satires on Bedouin tribes, but avoiding city politics. But he lived a prodigal life, and his amorous verses led to his expulsion by the caliph Marwan I . Just at that time he learned of the death of Ziyad and returned to Basra, where he secured the favor of Ziyads successor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad .4 Much of his poetry was now devoted to his matrimonial affairs. He had taken advantage of his position as guardian and married his cousin Nawhr against her will.5 She sought help in vain from the court of Basra and from various tribes. All feared the poets satires.6 At last she fled to Makkah and appealed to the pretender Abdallah ibn Zubair , who, however, succeeded in inducing her to consent to a confirmation of the marriage.7 Farazdaq took a second wife, and after her death a third, to annoy Nawhr. Finally he consented to a divorce pronounced by Hasan al-Basri . Another subject occasioned a long series of verses, namely his feud with his rival Jarir and his tribe the Bani Kulaib .8 These poems are published as the Nakaid of Jarir and al-Farazdaq (ed. In political life Farazdaq was prevented by fear from taking a large part. He seems, however, to have been attached to the house of Ali. During the reign of Moawiya I he avoided politics, but later gave his allegiance to Abdallah ibn Zubair. The fullest account of his life is contained in J. Hell's Das Leben Farazdaq nach sein Gedichten (Leipzig, 1903); Arabian stories of him in the Kitab ul-Aghani and in Ibn Khailikan . A portion of his poems was edited with French translation by R. Boucher (Paris, 1870); the remainder have been published by J.9 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed.10 Cambridge University Press. : Missing or empty |title= ( help )11

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 17175974.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “arab poet”. Today it says “a 7th-century arab poet and orator who was born in the rashidun caliphate of umar and flourished during the uma”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '232025
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What Wikipedia says this is

Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

arab poet

Now

a 7th-century arab poet and orator who was born in the rashidun caliphate of umar and flourished during the uma

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.

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