Ishmaelites
The Ishmaelites (Hebrew: יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים Yīšməʿēʾlīm, Arabic: بني إسماعيل Bani Isma'il; "children of Ishmael") were a tribal confederation of Iron Age Semitic-speaking tribes of the ancient Near East, which inhabited a part of the Arab world.
In the Abrahamic religions, they are named after Ishmael, a patriarch in the narratives of the Old Testament and the Quran and a prophet according to the latter, the first son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar. According to Genesis, Ishmael had one daughter and twelve sons, the "twelve princes" mentioned in Genesis 17:20. In Islamic tradition, these gave rise to the "Twelve Tribes of Ishmael", Arab tribes from which the early Muslims were descended. In Jewish tradition, the Twelve Tribes of Israel were descended from Abraham's other son, Isaac, via Isaac's son Jacob. This traditions are accepted by both Islam and Judaism.
Genesis and 1 Chronicles describe the Qedarites as a tribe descended from the second son of Ishmael, Qedar. Some Abrahamic scholars described the historic tribe of Nabataeans as descendants of Nebaioth based on the similarity of sounds, but others reject this connection. Different Islamic groups assign the ancestry of the prophet Muhammad either to Qedar or Nebaioth.
There is no archaeological evidence to support the belief that the patriarchs and matriarchs of Genesis were historic people,[1] and most scholars do not consider scriptural accounts to be accurate accounts of early history.[citation needed]
Assyrian and Babylonian Inscriptions refer to the Ishmaelites as "Sumu'ilu", a tribal confederation that would take control of the incense trade route during the dominance of the Assyrian Empire to the north.[2][3][4][5]
Jewish narrative[]
Hebrew Bible[]
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham's first wife was named Sarah and her Egyptian slave was named Hagar. However, Sarah could not conceive. In chapter 16 Sarah (then Sarai) gave her slave Hagar in marriage to Abraham, in order that Abraham might have an heir.
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian...and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.[6]
Hagar conceived Ishmael from Abraham, and the Ishmaelites descend from him. After Abraham pleaded with God for Ishmael to live under his blessing, chapter 17 states:
But as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.[7]
Chapter 25 lists his sons as:
And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael
Nebaioth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah[8]
According to the documentary hypothesis, Genesis 25 would have been added during the Persian Period by the Priestly source, who attributed the known Ishmaelite (Shumu'ilu) Tribes as the names of the sons of Ishmael. However, the name and narrative of Ishmael found in other parts of Genesis would antedate this by centuries. The Hebrew Bible already contained the story of Ishmael, and it would later come across Ishmaelite Tribes, and they would invent names for Ishmael's sons, named after the various tribes in the Ishmaelite Confederacy.[9][10][3]
| Family of Ishmaelites | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Islamic narrative[]
 | This section may require copy editing. (August 2021) |
Quran and hadiths[]
|
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
The Islamic holy book Quran states "Allah has gifted all of Ismail, al-Yasa, Yunus and Lut a favor above the nations.
With some of their forefathers and their offspring and their brethren; and We chose them and guided them unto a straight path". (Quran 6:86).[11]
The Ishmaelite story begins when Abraham (Ibrahim) and Hagar (Hajar) bear the prophetic child, who was named Ishmael (Ismail) in the order of God (Allah) through one of his angels. God ordered Abraham to take his son Ishmael and wife Hagar to present-day Mecca. He prayed for them after leaving them, saying: "O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivatable valley by Your Sacred House (the Kaaba ('Cube') at Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Ṣalāt. So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits so that they may give thanks."[Qur'an, Ibraaheem 14:37][12]
Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, suffered from great thirst. Hagar ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa in search of water for her son. After the seventh run between the two hills, an angel appeared before her. He helped them and said that God heard Ishmael cry and would provide them with water, and Hagar stopped the water with the help of stones. The Prophet Muhammad said, "May Allah forgive Hazrat Hajar if she don't stop the water, there was a great water fountain."
After a while, a group of people passed by and saw the well and the wife of Abraham and his son sitting there. The group asked Hagar to have some of the water from the well, in which Hagar agreed, and an Arab tribe started there. Ishmael grew up there and learned Arabic from the tribe, while waiting for his father for many years.
When Abraham arrived in Marwa, he found out that his son was alive. When young Ishmael saw his father, he ran to him and they embraced.
God decided to test Abraham again, and he saw a dream in which he was sacrificing his son Ishmael two nights in a row. The prophet told his son about the dream and his son accepted the sacrifice. Both traveled to Mount Arafat for the sacrifice. Abraham blindfolded himself because he couldn't bear to see his son squirm. he held the knife but he heard a voice and he saw that the goat was sacrificed instead of his son Ishmael.
God then ordered Abraham to rebuild the mosque for Ishmael's tribe, which was previously constructed by the first Islamic prophet Adam. Both Abraham and his son Ishmael started building the Kaaba. Abraham was building the mosque while his son was providing him the stones, and when the walls were built, Ishmael brought the large stone for Abraham to build the roof, which was called Maqam Ibrahim. The whole Kaaba was constructed but one stone was missing, so Abraham sent his son in search of a stone to fill it.
When Ishmael left, The angel Gabriel (Jibril) appeared with the beautiful white stone and told Abraham that the Black Stone (Al-Hajar-ul-Aswad belongs to the Jannah and Adam and Eve (Adam and Hawa), the first human beings. The stone is said to have been white, but after the sins of human beings, it became black. Later Abraham and his son Ishmael completed the construction of the Kaaba. They prayed to God for accepting their efforts, and God was happy with them.
Later, three angels appeared on Abraham's house, and they reported Abraham that his first wife Sarah will also bear a prophetic child named Isaac (Ishaq). The descendants of Isaac through his son Jacob (Yaqub) form the great confederation and all of the prophets from Jacob to Jesus (Isa) were sent to the Israelites, while Job (Ayyub) was sent to the nation of Edom. After the defiance of the Israelites, God sent his most righteous and last prophet of all mankind, Muhammad, from the Ishmaelites, the greatest of all 124,000 prophets of God.
Other traditions[]
Samaritan Asaṭīr[]
The Samaritan book Asaṭīr adds:[13]: 262
And after the death of Abraham, Ishmael reigned twenty-seven years;
And all the children of Nebaot ruled for one year in the lifetime of Ishmael;
And for thirty years after his death from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates; and they built Mecca.[a]
Josephus' Antiquities[]
|
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
Josephus also lists the sons and states that they "...inhabit the lands which are between Euphrates and the Red Sea, the name of which country is Nabathæa."[15]
Targum Onkelos[]
The Targum Onkelos annotates Genesis 25:16, describing the extent of their settlements: "And they dwelt from Hindekaia [India] unto Chalutsa, which is by the side of Mizraim [Egypt], from thy going up towards Arthur [Assyria]."[16]
Kebra Nagast[]
The 14th century Kebra Nagast says "And therefore the children of Ishmael became kings over Tereb, and over Kebet, and over Nôbâ, and Sôba, and Kuergue, and Kîfî, and Mâkâ, and Môrnâ, and Fînḳânâ, and ’Arsîbânâ, and Lîbâ, and Mase'a, for they were the seed of Shem."[17]
Historical records using the term[]
Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions and North Arabian inscriptions from 9th to 6th century BC, mention the king of Qedar, sometimes as Arab and sometimes as Ishmaelite.[18][19][20][21] The names "Nabat, Kedar, Abdeel, Dumah, Massa, and Teman" were mentioned in the Assyrian royal inscriptions as Arabian tribes. Jesur was mentioned in Greek inscriptions in the First Century BC.[22][5] Assyrian and Babylonian Inscriptions have referred to the Ishmaelites as "Sumu'ilu" and Ernst Knauf had written that Yisma'el is a typical West Semitic Personal name found in texts from the 3rd Millennium BC to pre-Islamic Arabic in the First Half of the First Millennium CE. He argues that the North Arabian "Sama'il" would be rendered "Shumu'il" by Assyrians, and would have the same meaning as "Yisma'el" and hence the Shumu'ilu Tribes would be descended to an ancestor named Yisma'el, which is anglicized as Ishmael.[3][5] One of the Inscriptions mentioning the Ishmaelites is Sennacherib's Annals, in column vii line 96.[23][3][24]
The Ishmaelite Confederacy did have differences. The Qedar Tribe’s political center was Duma (Dumat Al-Jandal), which was also the cultic residence of the six deities of the “king of the Arabs” as John Travis Noble writes.[3][5] Tayma’s pantheon was quite different from that of Duma, which seems to be the capital of the Ishmaelites, even though Tema appears as a son of Ishmael in Genesis 25. Noble then writes that it is unlikely that all 12 tribes associated with the sons of Ishmael were in the Ishmaelite Confederacy simultaneously, and tribes joined in one instance may not be a part of it in another instance, and they sometimes may have fought each other despite association with the wider Ishmaelite Confederacy. However, the term “Ishmaelites” or rather “Sumu'ilu” disappears from documentary sources as the Assyrian Empire fell.[5][3] However, the individual tribes and members kept going on, as there are references from the time Cyrus the Great came to power of the kings living in tents. Southern Palestine and the surrounding areas were inhabited considerably by Arabs, who had been entrenched there as early as the 6th century BC. According to Knauf, this expansion caused the tribes to decrease contact, and this caused the Ishmaelite Confederacy to end, not any military defeat.[5][3]
Arabic genealogical traditions[]
| Historical Arab states and dynasties |
|---|
 |
Medieval Arab genealogists divided Arabs into three groups:
- "Ancient Arabs", tribes that had vanished or been destroyed, such as ʿĀd and Thamud, often mentioned in the Quran as examples of God's power to destroy those who did not believe and follow their prophets and messengers.
- "Pure Arabs" of South Arabia, descending from Qahtan son of Eber (ʿĀbir).[25] Some of the Qahtanites (Qahtanis) are said to have migrated from the land of Yemen following the destruction of the Marib Dam (sadd Ma'rib).[26]
- The "Arabized Arabs" (musta`ribah) of center and North Arabia, descending from Ishmael the elder son of Abraham through his descendant Adnan. Such as the ancient tribe of Hawazin, or the modern-day tribes of Otaibah and Anazzah.
Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (676–743 AD) wrote that his father Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin informed him that prophet Muhammad had said: "The first whose tongue spoke in clear Arabic was Ishmael, when he was fourteen years old."[27] Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819 AD) established a genealogical link between Ishmael and Muhammad using writings and the ancient oral traditions of the Arabs. His book, Jamharat al-Nasab ("The Abundance of Kinship"), seems to posit that the people known as "Arabs" (of his time) were all descendants of Ishmael.[28] Ibn Kathir (1301–1373) writes (translated): "All the Arabs of the Hejaz are descendants of Nebaioth and Qedar."[27] Medieval Jewish sources also usually identified Qedar with Arabs and Muslims.[29][30][d] According to author and scholar Irfan Shahîd, while Western scholars viewed this kind of "genealogical Ishmaelism" with suspicion, the concept can be supported for certain groups among the Arabs,
Genealogical Ishmaelism was viewed with suspicion as a late Islamic fabrication because of the confusion in Islamic times which made it such a capacious term as to include the inhabitants of the south as well as the north of the Arabian Peninsula. But short of this extravagance, the concept is much more modest in its denotation, and in the sober sources, it applies only to certain groups among the Arabs of pre-Islamic times. Some important statements to this effect were made by Muhammad when he identified some Arabs as Ishmaelites and others as not.[31]
Ishmaelism in this more limited definition holds that Ishmael was both an important religious figure and eponymous ancestor for some of the Arabs of western Arabia.[31] Prominence is given in Arab genealogical accounts to the first two of Ishmael's twelve sons, Nebaioth (Arabic: نبيت, Nabīt) and Qedar (Arabic: قيدار, Qaydār), who are also prominently featured in the Genesis account.[31] It is likely that they and their tribes lived in northwestern Arabia and were historically the most important of the twelve Ishmaelite tribes.[31]
Muslims believe that the first person to speak Arabic clearly was Ishmael: "Isma’il grew up among the Jurhum an Arabic-speaking tribe, learning the pure Arabic tongue from them. When grown-up he successively married two ladies from the Jurhum tribe, the second wife being the daughter of Mudad ibn ‘Amr, leader of the Jurhum tribe."[32]
In accounts tracing the ancestry of Muhammad back to Ma'ad (and from there to Adam), Arab scholars alternate, with some citing the line as through Nebaioth, others Qedar.[33] Many Muslim scholars see Isaiah 42 (21:13-17) as predicting the coming of a servant of God who is associated with Qedar and interpret this as a reference to Muhammad.[34]
See also[]
Notes[]
- ^ This text has been dated by Moses Gaster to the third century BCE,[13]: 262 but A.D. Crown writes that its Aramaic resembles more the language used by the scholar of Tyre in the 11th century.[14]: 34
References[]
- ^ Dever, William G. (2001-05-10). What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-2126-3.
- ^ Eph'al, Israel. The Ancient ARABS: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile CRESCENT, 9th-5th Century B.C. Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1984.
- ^ a b c d e f g Knauf, Ernst Axel. Ismael: Unters. Zur Geschichte Palästinas u. Nordarabiens Im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Harrassowitz, 1985. 1-5, 81-91.
- ^ http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/sources/P422273/html
- ^ a b c d e f Noble, John Travis. 2013. "Let Ishmael Live Before You!" Finding a Place for Hagar's Son in the Priestly Tradition. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.
- ^ Genesis 16:3, King James Version
- ^ Genesis 17:20, King James Version
- ^ Genesis 25:13–15, King James Version
- ^ Noble, John Travis. 2013. "Let Ishmael Live Before You!" Finding a Place for Hagar's Son in the Priestly Tradition. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.
- ^ Eph'al, Israel. The Ancient ARABS: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile CRESCENT, 9th–5th Century B.C. Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1984.
- ^ Quran 6:86
- ^ IslamQA website: "Ibrahim (peace be upon him)" IslamQA retrieved June 22, 2013
- ^ a b Gaster, Moses (1927). "VIII". The Asatir: the Samaritan book of Moses. London: Royal Asiatic Society. OCLC 540827714.
- ^ Crown, Alan David (1993). A companion to Samaritan studies. Tübingen: Mohr, J.C.B. ISBN 9783161456664. OCLC 611644250.
- ^ Josephus, Titus Flavius. "ch. 12: Of Ishmael, Abraham's son; and of the Arabians posterity.". Antiquities of the Jews (in Ancient Greek). Book 1: From creation to the death of Isaac. OCLC 70357552.
- ^ Onkelos. "Section V. Chaiyey Sarah". Targum Onkelos. targum.info (in Aramaic).
- ^ "ch. 83: Concerning the King of the Ishmaelites". Kebra Nagast. sacred-texts.com (in Geez).
- ^ Delitzsche (1912). Assyriesche Lesestuche. Leipzig. OCLC 2008786.
- ^ Montgomery (1934). Arabia and the Bible. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania. OCLC 639516.
- ^ Winnet (1970). Ancient Records from North Arabia. pp. 51, 52. ISBN 9780802052193. OCLC 79767.
king of kedar (Qedarites) is named alternatively as king of Ishmaelites and king of Arabs in Assyrian Inscriptions
- ^ Stetkevychc (2000). Muhammad and the Golden Bough. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253332087.
Assyrian records document Ishmaelites as Qedarites and as Arabs
- ^ Hamilton, Victor P. (1990). The book of Genesis ([Nachdr.] ed.). Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0802823092.
- ^ Eph'al, Israel. The Ancient ARABS: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile CRESCENT, 9th-5th Century B.C. Magnes Press, Hebrew University, 1984.
- ^ http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/sources/P422273/html
- ^ McClintock, John; Strong, James (1894). Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Harper.
- ^ O'Leary, De Lacy Evans (2000) [1927]. Arabia Before Muhammad. London: Routledge. pp. 92–3. ISBN 0-415-24466-8.
- ^ a b Wheeler, 2002, p. 110-111.
- ^ ""Arabia" in Ancient History". Centre for Sinai. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
- ^ Alexander, 1847, p. 67.
- ^ Alfonso, 2007, p. 137, note 36.
- ^ a b c d Shahîd, 1989, p. 335-336.
- ^ Ali, Mohar. "The Ka'abah And The Abrahamic Tradition". Retrieved 15 August 2015.
- ^ al-Mousawi in Boudreau et al., 1998, p. 219.
- ^ Zepp, Ira G. A Muslim Primer: Beginner's Guide to Islam. Vol. 1. University of Arkansas Press, 2000, 50
External links[]
- Ishmaelites
- Muslim communities
- Abraham
- Tribes of Arabia
- Ancient peoples of the Near East
- Semitic-speaking peoples
- Ethnonyms
- Hebrew Bible nations
- Former confederations
- Iron Age peoples of Asia