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Timur: what Wikipedia removed

Timur is the Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire. On October 6, 2023, the opening stated that his “wars, undertaken in the name of the Jihad, paradoxically resulted in the ruin or weakening of the greatest powers of Islam.” Today the word jihad occurs nowhere in the article. A reader today does not learn that Wikipedia’s own opening once described Timur’s wars as waged in the name of jihad.

The word “siege” appeared 1 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2020. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 31. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.

The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot

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word20052010201520206 October 20232025
siege000000
jihad000010
genocide000033

Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.

What was taken out

Section titled “What was taken out”
  • The opening’s descriptor and birth-year estimate were rewritten, changing ‘military leader and conqueror’ to ‘conqueror’ and the birth year from 1336 to the 1320s.
  • A quoted scholarly note from Beatrice Forbes Manz on Timur’s formal correspondence, dropped from the opening.
  • The sentence on how Timur justified his Iranian, Mamluk, and Ottoman campaigns was reworded rather than removed.
  • The note that Timur inflicted heavy blows on an emerging power three years before his death, dropped from the opening.
  • The statement that Timur’s wars were undertaken in the name of jihad, and paradoxically weakened the great Islamic powers, was removed from the opening.

How it opened then, and now

Section titled “How it opened then, and now”

2005 (revision 17876777):

For the chess engine Tamerlane , see Tamerlane . Statue of Timur in Samarkand , Uzbekistan Timur , (also known as Temur , Taimur , Timur Lenk , Timur i Leng , Tamerlane , Tamburlaine , or Taimur-e-Lang , which translates to Timur the Lame , as he was lame after sustaining an injury in battle) ( 1336 –February 1405 ) was a renowned 14th century Tatar / Turco-Persian conqueror, ruler of the Timurid Empire ( 1370 –1405) in Central Asia , and founder of the Timurid dynasty , which survived until 1506 .

2025 (revision 1297774387):

Turco-Mongol conqueror (1320s–1405) “Tamerlane” and “Tamerlan” redirect here. For the poem, see Tamerlane (poem) . For people named Tamerlan, see Tamerlan (given name) . For people named Timur or Temur, see Timur (name) . For other uses, see Timur (disambiguation) . Timur , also known as Tamerlane (1320s – 17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan , Iran , and Central Asia , becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty . An undefeated commander, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest military leaders and tacticians in history, as well as one of the most brutal and deadly. Timur is also considered a great pa…

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