Wikipedia's first sentence called it “crucial naval battle fought in 655 between the muslim arabs”. Today it says “naval battle fought in 655 between the rashidun caliphate under the command of abu al-a'war and the byzantine e”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “654 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars”. It now reads “655 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars”.
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 October 6, 2023 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 October 6, 2023
655 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars Belligerents Rashidun Caliphate Byzantine Empire Commanders and leaders Muawiyah I Abdallah ibn Sa'd Abu al-A'war Busr ibn Abi Artat Constans II Strength 200 ships 500 ships Casualties and losses Light Almost all The Battle of the Masts ( ) or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 655 (A.H. 34) between the Muslim Arabs led by Abdallah ibn Sa'd and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II .1 The battle was part of the earliest campaign by Muawiyah to reach Constantinople and is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep". The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ʿUthmān, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35 .2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1173520412.
The opening as it stood in 2010
The Battle of the Masts ( Arabic : معركة ذات الصواري, romanized Dhat Al-Sawari ) or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 655 between the Muslim Arabs , led by Abdullah bin Sa'ad bin Abi'l Sarh and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 368790568.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Battle of the Masts ( Arabic : معركة ذات الصواري, romanized Dhat Al-Sawari ) or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 655 between the Muslim Arabs , led by Abdullah bin Sa'ad bin Abi'l Sarh and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II . The battle is considered, "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep." Ridpath, John Clark.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 645134280.
The opening as it stood in 2020
654 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars Belligerents Rashidun Caliphate Roman Empire Commanders and leaders Abu'l-Awar Abd Allah ibn Abi Sarh Busr ibn Artat Constans II Strength 200 ship 500 ship Casualties and losses Heavy by greek fire Heavy 400+ ship ( almost all ) The Battle of the Masts ( Arabic : معركة ذات الصواري, romanized Ma‘rakat Dhāt al-Ṣawārī ) or Battle of Phoenix was a crucial naval battle fought in 654 (A.H. 34) between the Muslim Arabs led by Abu'l-Awar and the Byzantine fleet under the personal command of Emperor Constans II .The battle is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep" as well as part of the earliest campaign by Muawiyah to conquer Constantinople.The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XV: The Crisis of the Early Caliphate: The Reign of ʿUthmān, A.D. 644–656/A.H. 24–35 .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 960250946.
The opening as it stood in 2025 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
655 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars Belligerents Rashidun Caliphate Byzantine Empire Commanders and leaders Mu'awiya I Abu al-A'war Abdullah Ibn Sa'ad Constans II Strength 200 ships 500 ship Casualties and losses Light Almost all The Battle of the Masts ( Arabic : مَعْرَكَة ذَات الصَّوَارِي , romanized : Maʿrakat Dhāt al-Ṣawārī ) was a naval battle fought in 655 between the Rashidun Caliphate under the command of Abu al-A'war and the Byzantine Empire led by emperor Constans II ( r. 641–668 ).The battle was part of the earliest campaign by Mu'awiya , the governor of Syria , to reach Constantinople and is considered to be "the first decisive conflict of Islam on the deep".
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296806661. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “crucial naval battle fought in 655 between the muslim arabs”. Today it says “naval battle fought in 655 between the rashidun caliphate under the command of abu al-a'war and the byzantine e”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “654 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars”. It now reads “655 naval battle of the Arab–Byzantine wars”. 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
crucial naval battle fought in 655 between the muslim arabs
Now
naval battle fought in 655 between the rashidun caliphate under the command of abu al-a'war and the byzantine e
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.
