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Case file

Ijazah

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “certificate used primarily by muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmi”. Today it says “license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject”.
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 2025

License authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject in Islam An ijazah ( Arabic : الإِجازَة , "permission", "authorization", "license"; plural: ijazahs or ijazat ) is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such authority. It is particularly associated with transmission of Islamic religious knowledge . The license usually implies that the student has acquired this knowledge from the issuer of the ijaza through first-hand oral instruction, although this requirement came to be relaxed over time. An ijaza providing a chain of authorized transmitters going back to the original author often accompanied texts of hadith , fiqh and tafsir ; but also appeared in mystical, historical, and philological works, as well as literary collections. While the ijaza is primarily associated with Sunni Islam , the concept also appears in the hadith traditions of Twelver Shia . George Makdisi , professor of oriental studies, theorized that the ijazah was the origin of the university academic degree as well as the doctorate . Stewart ( Emory University ) agree that there is a resemblance between the ijazah and the university degree. However, Toby Huff and others reject Makdisi's theory. Stewart notes a difference in the granting authority (individual professor for the ijazah and a corporate entity in the case of the university). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). In the 1930s, the renowned Orientalist Alfred Guillaume noted strong resemblances between Muslim and Western Christian institutions of higher learning. An example he cited is the ijazah, which he recognized as being akin to the medieval licentia docendi, the precursor of the modern university degree. Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia . The license to teach law and issue legal opinions [...] is the type of ijazah that resembles the medieval European university degree most closely [...] The main difference between the two is that the granting authority is an individual professor, in the Islamic case, rather than a corporate institution in the case of the university. Despite this point, Makdisi has likened the ijazat al-ifta' wa'l-tadris to the medieval Latin licentia docendi and suggests that it served as a model for that degree. The rise of early modern science: Islam, China, and the West (2. ed., repr. ed.). It remains the case that no equivalent of the bachelor's degree, the licentia docendi, or higher degrees ever emerged in the medieval or early modern Islamic madrasas .

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1292182376.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “certificate used primarily by muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmi”. Today it says “license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject”. Read the current article and compare.
201020152020Oct '232025
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

certificate used primarily by muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmi

Now

license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject

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.

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