Did Ishmael father the Arab nations?

Durie’s Verdict:

No Mohammed

 

Part Two:
Did Ishmael father the Arab nations?

 

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

“According to Sir Fergus Millar, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at Oxford University, it was Josephus, a Jewish historian writing in the first century CE, who first advanced the idea that Ishmael was the ancestor of the Arabs. In The Antiquities of the Jews Josephus stated that Ishmael was ‘the founder’ of the Arabian nation, and Abraham was ‘their father’. From Josephus, this assumed connection between the Arabs and Abraham, through Ishmael, passed into the historical consciousness of Christians, and then made its way into early Islam”.

 

Mark Durie

 

 

According to the same Mark Durie, “Ishmael is not the Father of the Arabs”:

https://markdurie.com/ishmael-is-not-the-father-of-the-arabs/

 

….

The Qur’an does not speak of Ishmael or Abraham as ancestors of the Arabs – although it does have Abraham and Ishmael praying for Allah to make their descendants a Muslim people – but the link is established in the hadith literature, in traditions about Muhammad’s own genealogy. In this way Abraham and Ishmael came to be considered, in Islamic tradition, not only a spiritual antecedent of Muhammad as an Islamic prophet, but also the physical ancestor of (at least some of) the Arabs.

 

What does the Bible say?

 

The Bible speaks both of Ishmaelites, the descendants of Ishmael, and of Arabs, but does not join them together.  I. Ephʿal has pointed out that the references to Ishmaelites are earlier in the Bible, and the references to Arabs later. Both refer to non-sedentary, nomadic peoples, but they are separated by centuries. Ephʿal concludes that references to ‘Ishmaelites’ cease by the mid 10th century BCE, and the references to ‘Arabs’ only commence in the mid-8th century BCE, so “there is no historical basis to the tradition of associating Ishmaelites with the Arabs”.

 

The Bible does link the Ishmaelites with the Midianites, using these names as synonyms in two places. Genesis describes Joseph as being sold to a caravan of camel-riding Ishmaelites who are also called Midianites (Genesis 37:25–28, 36; 39:1; see also Judges 8:22-24). ….

 

 

The Egyptian Connection

 

What may get overlooked in discussions of Ishmael and his mother Hagar is the pervasive Egyptian element.

 

Hagar was an Egyptian (Genesis 16:3): “So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife”.

 

That Ishmael was thoroughly Egyptianised is apparent, so I think, from a comparison of his toledôt history of Abram and Sarai with that of the Palestine-based Isaac (Abraham and Sarah).

{For an explanation of toledôt, see:

 

Book of Genesis and those ancient patriarchal histories

 

https://www.academia.edu/38516296/Book_of_Genesis_and_those_ancient_patriarchal_histories  }

 

Ishmael’s account of the abduction of “Sarai” by “Pharaoh” is different enough from Isaac’s account of the very same incident of the abduction of “Sarah” by “Abimelech”, that commentators - unaware of the implications of toledôt and of the true sources and structure of the Book of Genesis - tend to presume that these are two entirely separate incidents.

For my contrary view of these, see e.g. my article:

 

Toledôt Explains Abram's Pharaoh

 

https://www.academia.edu/26239534/Toled%C3%B4t_Explains_Abrams_Pharaoh

 

Rabbinic traditions, however, may have kept well alive the Egyptian element:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael

 

Rabbinical commentators in the Midrash Genesis Rabbah also say that Ishmael's mother Hagar was the Pharaoh's daughter, making Ishmael the Pharaoh's grandson. This could be why Genesis 17:20 refers to Ishmael as the father of 12 mighty princes.

 

and:

 

According to Genesis 21:21, Hagar married Ishmael to an Egyptian woman, and if Rabbinical commentators are correct that Hagar was the Pharaoh's daughter, his marriage to a woman she selected could explain how and why his sons became princes.

 

Some Jewish traditions actually identify Hagar with Keturah:

 

According to other Jewish commentators, Ishmael's mother Hagar is identified with Keturah, the woman Abraham sought out and married after Sarah's death. It is suggested that Keturah was Hagar's personal name, and that "Hagar" was a descriptive label meaning "stranger".^[30][31][32] This interpretation is discussed in the Midrash^[33] and is supported by Rashi, Gur Aryeh, Keli Yakar, and Obadiah of Bertinoro. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki) argues that "Keturah" was a name given to Hagar because her deeds were as beautiful as incense (Hebrew, ketoret), and that she remained chaste (literally "tied her opening", with the verb tied in Aramaic being k-t-r) from the time she was separated from Abraham.

….