Wikipedia's first sentence called it “early 18th century fulani mathematician”. Today it says “prominent 18th century hausa scholar”.
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 2020
Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al-Fulani Al-Kishwani was an early 18th century Fulani mathematician , astronomer , mystic , and astrologer from Katsina , present-day Northern Nigeria .1 Al-Kishwani studied at the Gobarau Minaret in Katsina before leaving for Cairo , Egypt in 1732, where he published in Arabic a work titled, "A Treatise on the Magical Use of the Letters of the Alphabet" which is a mathematical scholarly manuscript of procedures for constructing magic squares up to the order 11. As words of encouragement to the reader he writes: Do not give up, for that is ignorance and not according to the rules of this art ... Like the lover, you cannot hope to achieve success without infinite perseverance. Al-Kishwani died in Cairo, Egypt in 1741.2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 956665471.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Fulani scholar, mathematician, astrologer, Arabic grammarian and jurist Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Fulani al-Kishnawi was a prominent 18th century Fulani scholar , mathematician , astrologer , Arabic grammarian and jurist from Katsina , present-day Northern Nigeria . Al-Kishnawi studied at the Gobarau Minaret in Katsina before leaving for Cairo , Egypt in 1732, where he published in Arabic a work titled, "A Treatise on the Magical Use of the Letters of the Alphabet" which is a mathematical scholarly manuscript of procedures for constructing magic squares up to the order 11. Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al-Kishnawi Google Books "Muhammed ibn Muhammed al-Fulani al-Kishnawi" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1178183571.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Fulani scholar, mathematician, astrologer, Arabic grammarian and jurist Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-AlFulani al-Katsinawi was a prominent 18th century Fulani scholar , mathematician , astrologer , Arabic grammarian and jurist from Katsina , present-day Northern Nigeria . Al-Kishnawi studied at the Gobarau Minaret in Katsina before leaving for Cairo , Egypt in 1732, where he published in Arabic a work titled, "A Treatise on the Magical Use of the Letters of the Alphabet" which is a mathematical scholarly manuscript of procedures for constructing magic squares up to the order 11. Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al-Kishnawi Google Books "Muhammed ibn Muhammed al-Fulani al-Kishnawi" .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1276531316. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “early 18th century fulani mathematician”. Today it says “prominent 18th century hausa scholar”. Read the current article and compare.
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 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
early 18th century fulani mathematician
Now
prominent 18th century hausa scholar
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.
