Ishmael

Ishmael [Heb.,=God hears], in the Bible. 1 Son of Abraham and Hagar ; ancestor of 12 tribes in N Arabia. Through Sara 's jealousy he and his mother were sent into the desert, where the angel of the Lord encountered them at a spring. Ishmael married an Egyptian and fathered 12 sons and a daughter. He was the half brother of Isaac and was Esau 's father-in-law. In Islam, Ishmael is considered a prophet. The spring is traditionally identified with a Meccan well near the Kaaba , which Muslims believe was built by Ishmael and Abraham. Muslims recognize Arabs as Ishmael's descendants, thus distinguishing them from the Israelites, the descendants of Isaac. The Bible does not clarify the peoples called Ishmaelites (or Ishmeelites); the term is generally regarded as referring to caravan traders. 2 In First Chronicles, descendant of Saul . 3 Ancestor of the Zebediah of Jehoshaphat's court in Second Chronicles. 4 Ally of Jehoiada in Second Chronicles. 5 Priest separated from his foreign wife in the Book of Ezra. 6 Assassin of Gedaliah .

Ishmael. Eldest son of the Jewish patriarch, Abraham, by his maidservant, Hagar. After the birth of Isaac, Ishmael and his mother were driven from the camp, because Isaac, rather than Ishmael, was the heir of the covenant (Genesis 16. 21). According to the Aggadah, Ishmael dishonoured women, worshipped idols, and tried to kill his younger brother (Gen.R. 53. 11; Tosef.Sot. 6. 6). He was said to be the ancestor of the Ishmaelites and, by extension, all the Arab peoples.

In Islam Ishmael (Ismāʿīl) is mentioned in the Qurʾān as one of the prophets (3. 84, 4. 163), and more specifically as a son of Ibrāhīm (Abraham) (14. 39). The two are said to have rebuilt the Kaʿba in Mecca and instituted the rites of ḥajj (pilgrimage). (2. 127–9).

Ishmael in the Bible, a son of Abraham and Hagar, his wife Sarah's maid, driven away with his mother after the birth of Isaac (Genesis 16:12). Ishmael (or Ismail) is also important in Islamic belief as the traditional ancestor of Muhammad and of the Arab peoples. In allusive use, Ishmael denotes an outcast.

Ishmael is the name of the narrator of Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851; the novel opens, ‘Call me Ishmael’), the one member of Captain Ahab's crew who survives.