Shoreshthe drift report · all case files
Case file

Kumayl ibn Ziyad

Wikipedia's first sentence called it “confidant amongst the companions of ali ibn abi talib”. Today it says “prominent tabi'un and a close companion of the first shia imam and fourth rashidun caliph”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Converting to Islam; Conflicts with the governor of Kufa and the event of Al-Rabathah; The event of al-Rabathan”.
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 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since. Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now. 1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005

Kumayl bin Ziyad an-Nakha'i was a confidant amongst the companions of Ali Ibn Abi Talib , the fourth Caliph and first Shi'a Imam .1 He is best know for the du'a or supplication in the Shi'a anthologies that bears his name, du'a al-Kumayl . Kumayl fought alongside Sa'id bin Jubayr at the battle of Jamājim in 82 AH (699-701 CE) against the provincial governor of the Iraqi region, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi . Kumayl commanded the ‘Battalion of Qur’an Reciters’.2 Kumayl was put to death by al-Hajjaj because of his staunch Shi'a beliefs. It is said that al-Hajjaj had asked Kumayl to disown Ali before his execution. The shrine of Kumayl is on a hill at Wadi al-Salaam in Najaf .3

This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16875724.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “confidant amongst the companions of ali ibn abi talib”. Today it says “prominent tabi'un and a close companion of the first shia imam and fourth rashidun caliph”. Sections present on October 6, 2023 no longer exist: “Converting to Islam; Conflicts with the governor of Kufa and the event of Al-Rabathah; The event of al-Rabathan”. Read the current article and compare.
2005201020152020Oct '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 2005, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.

Then

confidant amongst the companions of ali ibn abi talib

Now

prominent tabi'un and a close companion of the first shia imam and fourth rashidun caliph

Sections that no longer exist

Present on October 6, 2023, absent today, with no near-matching heading in the current article and the article shorter overall, so this is not a renamed heading or a topic absorbed into a fuller treatment. 3 sections of 400 characters or more gone since October 6 2023, with the article 3,602 characters shorter.

  • Converting to Islam
  • Conflicts with the governor of Kufa and the event of Al-Rabathah
  • The event of al-Rabathan
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.

← back to the drift report