In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “followers of the controversial nigerian muslim leader maitatsine”. Today it says “militant quranist movement founded by the controversial nigerian leader maitatsine that first appeared around t”.
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 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “followers of the controversial nigerian muslim leader maitatsine”. Today it says “militant quranist movement founded by the controversial nigerian leader maitatsine that first appeared around t”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 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 2015
Yan Tatsine were followers of the controversial Nigerian Muslim leader Maitatsine , that first appeared around the early 1970s.1They consisted largely of a following of youths, unemployed migrants, and those who felt that mainstream Muslim teachers were not doing enough for their communities. As his following increased in the 1970s, so did the number of confrontations between Yan Tatsine and the police. By December 1980, continued Yan Tatsine attacks on other religious figures and police forced the Nigerian army to become involved. Subsequent armed clashes led to the deaths of around 5,000 people, including Maitatsine himself. Maitatsine died shortly after sustaining injuries in the clashes either from his wounds or from a heart attack.2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 663741971.
The opening as it stood in 2020 5 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Maghrebi script from a 13th-century northern African Qur'an The Yan Tatsine are followers of the controversial Nigerian Islamic leader Maitatsine that first appeared around the early 1970s.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 935484634.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Maghrebi script from a 13th-century northern African Qur'an The Yan Tatsine were followers of the controversial Nigerian Islamic leader Maitatsine that first appeared around the early 1970s.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1124330710.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Maghrebi script from a 13th-century northern African Qur'an The Yan Tatsine was a militant Quranist movement founded by the controversial Nigerian leader Maitatsine that first appeared around the early 1970s.The group was responsible for the 1980 Kano riot , in which over 4,177 civilians, 100 policemen and about 35 military personnel were killed, including Maitatsine himself.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1294882172. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “followers of the controversial nigerian muslim leader maitatsine”. Today it says “militant quranist movement founded by the controversial nigerian leader maitatsine that first appeared around t”. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
militant
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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 between 2015 and 2025.
Then
followers of the controversial nigerian muslim leader maitatsine
Now
militant quranist movement founded by the controversial nigerian leader maitatsine that first appeared around t
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.