Wikipedia's first sentence called it “conflict between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire”. Today it says “battle between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire that occurred shortly after the battle of fahl”.
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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
635 CE conflict between the Rashidun Caliphate and Byzantine Empire Belligerents Rashidun Caliphate Byzantine Empire Commanders and leaders Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah Khalid ibn al-Walid Theodore the Patricius † Shannash al-Rome † Sheodore † Strength Unknown Unknown Casualties and losses Unknown Heavy The Battle of Marj ar-Rum ( Meadow of Rome ), also known as the Battle of Marj Dimashq ( Meadow of Damascus ), was a conflict between the Rashidun caliphate and the Byzantine Empire . The battle occurred shortly after the Battle of Fahl when the Byzantines attempted to recapture Damascus. Heraclius , the Byzantine emperor, sent two separate forces in the effort, one army led by Theodore the Patricius and a second army led by Shannash al-Rome. The Rashidun army led by Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah and Khalid ibn al-Walid was ordered to assist Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan who was acting as the garrison commander of Damascus. The battle consisted of two separate engagements, however, Muslim historians regard these conflicts as a single battle because the fighting occurred concurrently and that Khalid participated in both engagements. The battle is considered as a decisive victory for the Rashidun army as all the Byzantine commanders were killed and the threat of losing Damascus ended.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1265685990.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
635 CE conflict between the Rashidun Caliphate and Byzantine Empire Belligerents Rashidun army Byzantine army Commanders and leaders Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah Khalid ibn al-Walid Theodore the Patricius † Shannash al-Rome † Sheodore † Strength Unknown Unknown Casualties and losses Heavy The Battle of Marj ar-Rum ( Meadow of Rome ), also known as the Battle of Marj Dimashq ( Meadow of Damascus ), was a conflict between the Rashidun caliphate and the Byzantine Empire . The battle occurred shortly after the Battle of Fahl when the Byzantines attempted to recapture Damascus. Heraclius , the Byzantine emperor, sent two separate forces in the effort, one army led by Theodore the Patricius and a second army led by Shannash al-Rome. The Rashidun army led by Abu Ubaydah ibn al Jarrah and Khalid ibn al-Walid was ordered to assist Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan who was acting as the garrison commander of Damascus. The battle consisted of two separate engagements, however, Muslim historians regard these conflicts as a single battle due to the fact that the fighting occurred concurrently and that Khalid participated in both engagements. The battle is considered as a decisive victory for the Rashidun army as all the Byzantine commanders were killed and the threat of losing Damascus ended.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1147976777.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “conflict between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire”. Today it says “battle between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire that occurred shortly after the battle of fahl”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2023, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
conflict between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire
Now
battle between the rashidun caliphate and the byzantine empire that occurred shortly after the battle of fahl
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.
