Ishmaelites

Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISH : Ishmaelites

According to both Biblical and Qur'anic tradition, Ibrahim (Abraham) had two wives: Sarah and Hagar. He had a son by each wife: Ismail (Ishmael) from Hagar and Ishaq (Isaac) from Sarah. It was stated by God that each son would be the father of a nation. The Israelites descended from Isaac and the Ishmaelites from Ismail.

Circumstances forced Ibrahim to leave Hagar and Ismail in what is now Mecca. The children of Ismail are known as Banu Ismail or Ishmailities.

In Jewish and Christian traditions, the identification of the Ishmaelites, described in the Bible as a people of the Arabian wilderness, with Arabs began at least by the time of Josephus, and became standard in the early days of Islam (in which the term "Hagarenes", a pun on the Arabic muhajir and the name of Hagar, was commonly used.) Efforts to reconcile the Biblical and Arab genealogies later led to the identification of Joktan with Qahtan, probably due to his Biblical identification as the ancestor of Hazarmaveth (Hadramawt) and Sheba.

The Ishmaelites are sometimes identified with the Arab people. In Hebrew the words `arav and `aravah literally mean "desert" or "steppe". In the Hebrew Bible the latter feminine form is used exclusively for the Arabah, a region associated with the Nabateans, who spoke Aramaic. The former masculine form is used in Isaiah 21:13 and Ezekiel 27:21 for the region of the settlement of Kedar in the Syrian Desert. Kedar is traditionally associated with one of Ishmael's sons, according to the biblical genealogies (Genesis 25:13; 1 Chronicles 1:29).

Offspring of Ishmael