Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian professor at the american university of beirut in his time”. Today it says “palestinian professor at the american university of beirut”.
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.
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The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – January 29, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut , and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. The "author of over one hundred books", during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1161691661.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – January 29, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut in his time, and was considered the premier of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. During his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as the custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 663917555.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – January 29, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut , and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century.The "author of over one hundred books", during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 936874288.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Palestinian literary scholar and Arabist Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – July 30, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut , and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. The "author of over one hundred books", during his career, Abbas was renowned as one of the foremost scholars of Arabic language and literature and was a respected literary critic. Upon his death, Abbas was eulogized by University College London historian Lawrence Conrad as a custodian of Arabic heritage and culture, and a figure whose scholarship had dominated the Middle East's intellectual and cultural life for decades.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1289564475. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “palestinian professor at the american university of beirut in his time”. Today it says “palestinian professor at the american university of beirut”. 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
palestinian professor at the american university of beirut in his time
Now
palestinian professor at the american university of beirut
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.
