Wikipedia's first sentence called it “muslim religious ceremony marking when a child learns about islam”. Today it says “cultural ceremony celebrated mostly by muslims from the subcontinent in countries such as bangladesh”.
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
Bismillah ceremony , also known as Bismillahkhani , is a cultural ceremony celebrated mostly by Muslims from the subcontinent in countries such as Bangladesh , India and Pakistan . It marks the start for a child in learning to recite the Qur'an in its Arabic script. It is not a religiously prescribed milestone. The ceremony marks how a child should read the Qur’an and say prayers properly. The ceremony is named after the bismillah ("In the name of God "), the beginning words in the Qur'an. Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.).
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1131660460.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Bismillah ceremony is a Muslim religious ceremony marking when a child learns about Islam . It is performed mainly in the Indian subcontinent . The ceremony marks how a child should read the Qur’an and say the prayers properly. The ceremony is named after bismillah ("In the name of God "), a recurring word in Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 636373480.
The opening as it stood in 2020 2 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Bismillah ceremony is a cultural ceremony celebrated mostly by Muslims on the Indian subcontinent .It marks the start for a child in learning to recite the Qur'an in its Arabic script.It is not actually part of Islam. The ceremony marks how a child should read the Qur’an and say prayers properly. The ceremony is named after the bismillah ("In the name of God "), the beginning words in the Qur'an.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 956356577.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “muslim religious ceremony marking when a child learns about islam”. Today it says “cultural ceremony celebrated mostly by muslims from the subcontinent in countries such as bangladesh”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
muslim religious ceremony marking when a child learns about islam
Now
cultural ceremony celebrated mostly by muslims from the subcontinent in countries such as bangladesh
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.
