Wikipedia's first sentence called it “objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an arab and as relating to being arab”. Today it says “objective or subjective conception of perceiving somebody as an arab and as relating to having arab ancestry”.
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
Ethnic identity Artistic rendering of pre-Islamic costumes of Arab men and Arab women between fourth to sixth century Arab identity ( Arabic : الهوية العربية ) is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other cultural identities , it relies on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the common land in history, shared experiences including underlying conflicts and confrontations. These commonalities are regional and in historical contexts, tribal . Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity , and pre-dates the spread of Islam and before spread of Judaism and Christianity , with historically attested Arab Muslim tribes and Arab Christian tribes and Arab Jewish tribes . Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Most Arabs are Muslim , with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity , but also Druze and Baháʼí . Arab identity can also be seen through a lens of national, regional or local identity. Throughout Arab history , there have been three major national trends in the Arab world . Pan-Arabism rejects the individual Arab states' existing sovereignty as artificial creations and calls for full Arab unity. The Arabs in Palestine .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1291392375.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Artistic rendering of pre-Islamic costumes of Arab men and Arab women between fourth to sixth century Arab identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other cultural identities , it relies on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the common land in history, shared experiences including underlying conflicts and confrontations. These commonalities are regional and in historical contexts, tribal . Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity , and pre-dates the spread of Islam , with historically attested Arab Christian tribes and Arab Jewish tribes . Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Most Arabs are Muslim , with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity , but also Druze and Baha'i . Arab identity can also be seen through a lens of national, regional or local identity. Throughout Arab history , there have been three major national trends in the Arab world . Pan-Arabism rejects the individual Arab states' existing sovereignty as artificial creations and calls for full Arab unity. The Arabs in Palestine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964948543.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Ethnic identity Artistic rendering of pre-Islamic costumes of Arab men and Arab women between fourth to sixth century Arab identity ( ) is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other cultural identities , it relies on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the common land in history, shared experiences including underlying conflicts and confrontations. These commonalities are regional and in historical contexts, tribal . Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity , and pre-dates the spread of Islam and before spread of Judaism and Christianity , with historically attested Arab Muslim tribes and Arab Christian tribes and Arab Jewish tribes . Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Most Arabs are Muslim , with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity , but also Druze and Baháʼí . Arab identity can also be seen through a lens of national, regional or local identity. Throughout Arab history , there have been three major national trends in the Arab world . Pan-Arabism rejects the individual Arab states' existing sovereignty as artificial creations and calls for full Arab unity. The Arabs in Palestine .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1171160246.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an arab and as relating to being arab”. Today it says “objective or subjective conception of perceiving somebody as an arab and as relating to having arab ancestry”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an arab and as relating to being arab
Now
objective or subjective conception of perceiving somebody as an arab and as relating to having arab ancestry
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.