Case file
David Cook (historian)
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university”. Today it says “american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university in houston”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American religious studies scholar”. It now reads “American historian of Islam”.
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.
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The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
David Cook is an American historian and professor of the history of Islam at Rice University . Cook earned his PhD at the University of Chicago . Cook is noted among scholars of Islam for his "diligent reading and clear translations" of Islamic texts.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1174927313.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university”. Today it says “american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university in houston”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “American religious studies scholar”. It now reads “American historian of Islam”. Read the current article and compare.
| 2020 | Oct '23 | 2025 |
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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
american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university
Now
american historian and professor of the history of islam at rice university in houston
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.