frecise position occupied by each in relation to srael. The Ishmaelites, being referred to Abra- liam himself, must have been regarded as belong- ing to an ancient stock, and evidently (cf. IT'" 21'"" a great nation') enjoyed a reputation amonjj the Hebrews, though at the same time some inferiority was implied in the fact that their ancestor was Abraham's son, not by his lejntiraate wife, but by a ' handmaid ' : the fact that Ishmael's mother and ■wife were both Egyptian shows, further, that his descendants were considered to have Egyptian alood in their veins.§ At a much later date, Ishmael was connected vaguely with Arabia in general : || Mobammed was supposed to have been
• The word for 'nations' In On 26" 1b also a peculiar one
(nteH), more Arabic C^^nmeh) or Aramaic (Rzr 410, and often in Dn ; cf. in late Heb. Ps 117') than Hebrew (Nil 2515, also P, ' a head of the peoples, or ctniis, of a father's house [i.e. of a faniilyj in Midian '), and no doubt adopted here as the technical term used properly of the Ishmaelite tribes.
f The recurrence of Ihe numbers 6 and 12 in these tribal systems is an indication that they were to some extent formed artificially.
% In the case of Moab, we know, for instance, that itfl lan- ^o^e differed only dialecticallv from Hebrew.
§ Burton (El-iledinah and 'Mecca, IS.'iS, i. 213f., cf. iii. 31 f.) remarks on the palpably Et^yptian physiognomy of some of the Bedawi clans of Sinai, and quotes Gn "2121. Whether this was the case in ancient times, we dn not know ; but it is perhaps worth remembering that the Sinaitic peninsula was for lon^ owned and garrisoned by the E^-ptians, who worked in it mines of tur- quoise and copper (Masjiero. Dawn of Civil. 349-35S).
[I Josephus (JtTiC. 1. xii. 2) iven calls him the xTttrntf Ttv i6»uut
descended from him through l;iedar;* he is men- tioned sever.al times in the l^Cur'an, and is saio \a have assisted Ids father in the construction of th« Ka'h.ih at Mecca.t I" the OT, however, it ii impurt.int to observe, Ishmael is hardly at all associated with what we term 'Arabia': J the 'Arabian' peninsula (including parts in the ex- treme South, as I.ladramaut and Slieba) is peopled by the .Jo^tanidie (descendants of Joljtan, son of Abrahiiin's sixth ancestor, ''Eber,' and conse- quently much less closely connected with Israel), Gn III-""' ; tlie Ishmaelites are entirely distinct from these, and are limited to certain specilied trihes, living almost entirely on the N. and N.W. of the .Iol>taiiida'.§ Tlie circumcision of Ishmael at the age of 13 (Gn 17-') is in all proliability in- tended as an exi)lanation of the corresponding custom among the Ishmaelite tribes. Circum- cision has for long been practised by the 'Arabs' ; but it is commonly performed among them at a much later age than was customary with the Jews : II according to Ens. Prir.p. Ev. VI. xi. 49 it was i>erforiiR'd in the 13th year by o! 'IffynoTjXiToi ol Kara rriv 'ApaSiav, and SO according to Jos. Ant. I. xii. 2 by the "Apa/Ses.
The personality of Ishmael must be estimated similarly to that of the other patriarchs (cf. vol. i. p. 15 f. ; vol. ii. p. 533 tt'.).ir It is mo.st reasonable to regard liim as a historical character, but a character wlio at the same time was idealized, and whose biography, as told in the Book of Genesis, was coloured in some of its features by the character- istics, or historical relations, of the tribes who were considered to be his descendants. The racial afHnity of these tribes to Israel is clearly indicated in the Biblical narratives ; it is possible that the picture of Sarah's jealous opposition to Hagar and her son reflects to some extent old racial rivalries and contlicts, which ended in these tribes being obliged to separate from the ancestors of the Israelites, though they secured a successful independence elsewhere. The human passions and interests of Sarah and Abraham, of Hagar and Ishmael, the promptings, partly of natural aliection, partly of religious feeling, under which they act, and the manner in which the hand of Providence guides and moulds the destinies of men, are all portrayed with the vividness and psychological truth which is generally characteristic of the Book of Genesis.
In Gal 4-'-5' the narrative of Ishmael and Isaac is expounded allegorically. Hagar and Sarah repre- sent the two covenants, the old and the new : Ishmael is the child after the flesh, born in bondage ; Isaac is the child of promise, born in freedom : in the rivalries which arose between them, and ended in the triumph of the latter,
• And so, in the medifflval Jewish writers, 7Hll^:^] ]^c'7 and lip p::'7 both mean 'Arabic*
t See T. P. Hughes, Diet, o/ Islam, s.v. Ishmael's tomb ii shown at .Mecca.
I In the OT 'Arab' is the name simply of a single com- paratively small tribe (above, vol. i. p. 135),
§ The principal Bedawi tribes are spread also over the N. and N.W. of the Arabian Peninsula (see the Encjtcl. Brit.^ ii, 246-9); but it should be added, to preclude misunderstanding, that we cannot identify any of them specitically with the tribes con- nected in the OT with Ishmael : all that can be predicated is a general resemblance in their character and mode of life to the description in Gn 1612.