Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the early battles of the second islamic civil war”. Today it says “one of the early battles of the second fitna”.
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 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Siege of Mecca . The siege of Mecca in September–November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Fitna . The city of Mecca was a sanctuary for Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I . After nearby Medina , the other holy city of Islam , also rebelled against Yazid, the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia. The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city, but Mecca held out in a month-long siege, during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire. The siege ended when news came of Yazid's sudden death. The Umayyad commander, Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni , after vainly trying to induce Ibn al-Zubayr to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph, departed with his forces. Ibn al-Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war, but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world. It was not until 692 that the Umayyads were able to send another army, which again besieged and captured Mecca, ending the civil war.
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1291148531.
The opening as it stood in 2015
The Siege of Mecca in September–November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Islamic Civil War . The city of Mecca served as a sanctuary for Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr , who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I . After nearby Medina , the other holy city of Islam , also rebelled against Yazid, the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia. The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city, but Mecca held out in a month-long siege, during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire. The siege ended when news came of Yazid's sudden death. The Umayyad commander, Husayn ibn Numayr , after vainly trying to induce Abdallah to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph, departed with his forces. Ibn al-Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war, but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world. It was not until 692, that the Umayyads were able to send another army which again besieged and captured Mecca, ending the civil war.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 653747214.
The opening as it stood in 2020
The Siege of Mecca in September–November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Fitna . The city of Mecca served as a sanctuary for Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I . After nearby Medina , the other holy city of Islam , also rebelled against Yazid, the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia. The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city, but Mecca held out in a month-long siege, during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire. The siege ended when news came of Yazid's sudden death. The Umayyad commander, Husayn ibn Numayr , after vainly trying to induce Ibn al-Zubayr to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph, departed with his forces. Ibn al-Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war, but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world. It was not until 692, that the Umayyads were able to send another army which again besieged and captured Mecca, ending the civil war.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 960540873.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Part of the Second Fitna For other uses, see Siege of Mecca . The siege of Mecca in September–November 683 was one of the early battles of the Second Fitna . The city of Mecca was a sanctuary for Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr , who was among the most prominent challengers to the dynastic succession to the Caliphate by the Umayyad Yazid I . After nearby Medina , the other holy city of Islam , also rebelled against Yazid, the Umayyad ruler sent an army to subdue Arabia. The Umayyad army defeated the Medinans and took the city, but Mecca held out in a month-long siege, during which the Kaaba was damaged by fire. The siege ended when news came of Yazid's sudden death. The Umayyad commander, Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni , after vainly trying to induce Ibn al-Zubayr to return with him to Syria and be recognized as Caliph, departed with his forces. Ibn al-Zubayr remained in Mecca throughout the civil war, but he was nevertheless soon acknowledged as Caliph across most of the Muslim world. It was not until 692, that the Umayyads were able to send another army which again besieged and captured Mecca, ending the civil war.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1176289346.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “one of the early battles of the second islamic civil war”. Today it says “one of the early battles of the second fitna”. 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
one of the early battles of the second islamic civil war
Now
one of the early battles of the second fitna
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.
