Some Muslims claim descent from Ishmael, son of Abraham, and in the Quran Abraham is recognized as a prophet. ...
As I said, Abraham knew nothing of Islam, and neither did Ishmael.
The Bible [KJB] itself, God's perfectly inspired, preserved and eternal word [Psalms 12:6-7, 105:8, 119:89,160; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:10-17 KJB], though it does
not agree with the Islamic aHadith sources
in the specifics of Ishmael's spouses, [similarly, though not exactly],
nor even of the specifics of his migrational location
does declare that there were indeed peoples
already populated in the Arabian peninsula, specifically
from the time just after the flood of Noah, when his descendants spread out over the earth, from "Shem, Ham and Japheth" [Genesis 5:32 KJB]. However, before considering those events, I wanted to look at the origin and later migration of Ishmael himself from the Bible's [KJB] texts.
Ishmael, according to the Bible [KJB] was born of the lineage of Abraham [a 'son' [descendant] of
"Eber", hence
"Abram the Hebrew" [Genesis 14:13 KJB; see also Genesis 39:14,17 KJB and so also Joseph, son of Jacob/Israel [grandson of Abraham], was an “
Hebrew”, as per Genesis 41:12 KJB]] and of Hagar [an Egyptian slave-girl given to Sarai/h to be a bondservant, by a king of Egypt; Genesis 16:1-3,8,10, 17:20, 21:9-21, 25:12,17; Galatians 4:21-31 KJB] as may be seen from Genesis 16:10, 17:20, 1 Chronicles 1:28 KJB.
This means that of
origin biologically, geographically and of language,
Ishmael was
an Hebrew [father's side] -
Egyptian [mother's side] born [Genesis 16:3, see also "plain of Mamre", Genesis 14:13, 18:1, 49:30 KJB]
and sojourned in the land of Canaan [a 'son' of Ham; Genesis 10:6,20; 1 Chronicles 1:8 KJB], and thus may be rightly called [a coined phrase]
'an Hegyptian Canaanite', whose native language/s was/were
not Arabic, but that of Abraham [ie,
Chaldean, see "Ur of the Chaldeees" Genesis 11:28,31, 15:7, 24:4; Nehemiah 9:7 KJB] and even of his mother, ie Egyptian, and possibly even of the langauge of Canaan, having sojourned there.
There were
already peoples in the Arabian peninsula [as spread all over], such as the
Joktanite [Genesis 10:25-29; 1 Chronicles 1:19-23 KJB], and the
Palgite [of Peleg, the Pelegite, Genesis 10:25, 11:16-19; 1 Chronicles 1:19,25 KJB], and even the Albert Barnes Commentary picks up on this, saying, “... The Ishmaelites constituted
the second element of the great Arab nation ...”, though according to other and greater evidences, may not even be the "second element", as Albert Barnes says eleswhere, on Genesis 25:6, " ... These descendants of Abraham and Keturah are
the third contribution of Palgites to the Joktanites, who constituted the original element of the Arabs ...". Places/cities like
"Hazarmaveth" [named after the son of
"Joktan", see Genesis 10:26; 1 Chronicles 1:20 KJB] were already in existence then, as others. Moreoever,
"Uz" [Genesis 10:22; 1 Chronicles 1:17 KJB], and the
"Sinites" [of 'Sin' or 'Sinai', Genesis 10:17 KJB] were also present. Even the children of Ham, having moved down into Canaan, Egypt, and in the Arabian areas would have sojourned there.
In Genesis 17:20 KJB, God promises, "And 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."
Since this is so, and there were peoples already in the Arabian peninsula, and Ishmael was not yet made
"a great nation", he
cannot [logically, evidentially] be
"the" [singular, definite article]
'Father of the Arab/s', from a Biblical [KJB] perspective. Is he an ancestor to some who were later born in Arabia, and who spoke a form of Arabic dialect?
Absolutely, but it does
not make him
"the" Father of all the people groups in the Arabian peninsula, even though he was to be a
"great nation". If I were to say otherwise, that would be overstatment of the facts, from all sources thus searched.
Even beyond this, when Ishmael and his mother, Hagar, were to be
"cast out" [Genesis 21:10 KJB] at the behest of Sarah, and confirmed by God [Genesis 21:12 KJB], they first went into the
"wilderness of Beersheba" [Genesis 21:14 KJB], which is where Ishmael
"grew" and
"dwelt" [Genesis 21:20 KJB], and thus
"dwelt in the wlderness of Paran" [Genesis 21:21 KJB, see and compare Genesis 14:5-7; Numbers 10:11-13, 12:15-16, 13:1-3,25-27; Deuteronomy 1:1-2, 33:1-2; 1 Samuel 25:1; 1 Kings 11:17-19; Habakkuk 3:3 KJB], his mother, Hagar, taking
"him a wife out of the land of Egypt" [Genesis 21:21 KJB], being
her native homeland, and closer to that area. Thus the children of Ishmael's first wife, would be
2/3rd's Egyptian,
1/3 Hebrew, and would speak a combination of Egyptian/Canaanite/Chaldean. Neither Arabian blood, nor language even comes into this mixture
at this point, though they were to live in the
"east country" [Genesis 25:6 KJB].
Abraham, after the death of Sarah [Genesis 23:1-20 KJB],
"again ... took a wife, and her name was Keturah." [Genesis 25:1 KJB], whose sons were
"Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah." [Genesis 25:2 KJB],
"And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. ..." [Genesis 25:3 KJB], whose names are
still found in the cities of the Arabian penisula [see Genesis 25:1-4; 1 Chronicles 1:32,33 KJB], such as Dedanim [Isaiah 21:13 KJB], and Midian, as well as descendants of
Amalek [no primary relation to Ishmael [
* see below], except through possible later co-mingling], and also of Esau [Edomites, Idumeans], etc. These having no relation to Ishmael's line, except through later co-mingling, among the Ishmeelites, Midianites, Edomites, Egyptians, Persians, Syrians, etc. There are texts which declare that the sons/descendants of Ishmael migrated further into the Arabian peninsula, such as
"Kedar",
"Tema" etc. whose cities names are named after there, [see Genesis 28:9, 36:3; 1 Chronicles 5:18-23; Job 6:19-20; Isaiah 21:13-17, 42:11, 60:5-7; Jeremiah 2:10, 25:17-33, 49:28-33; Ezekiel 27:21; Psalms 120:1-7 KJB].
The word Arabia, means to mix, to be intermingled, a mixed multitude, and from that we can see this in Genesis 37:25-28, 39:1; Judges 8:21-28; 1 Chronicles 2:17, 5:10,19,20, 27:30,31; Psalms 83:6; Galatians 4:22-31 KJB.
As far as the Bible [KJB] is concerned, it
never specifically states that Ishmael himself moved into the Arbaian peninsula, though it is possible being to the
"east" (but really it was north-eastern above the peninsula), but even this of itself would
not make him Arabian [Moses was born in Egypt, it doesn't make him Egyptian, and lived in Midian, it doesn't make him of Midian],
nor the Father of all Arabians, but simply a sojourner there, his children, according to the Bible [KJB], being of Hebrew/Egyptian/Egyptian [father, mother [Hagar, and the Hagarenes], wife] blood at the first, then later becoming more intermingled among the various people groups who were already in the region [whether partially Egyptian, Canaanite, Joktanite, Palgite, Sinite, etc].
Even from Islamic sources, Arabia was already filled with peoples of various origins, such as the Jurhum, and people of Qahtan, etc.
For instance:
Sahih al-Bukhari Volume 4, Book 55, Number 597:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle was asked, "Who is the most honorable amongst the people?" He replied, "The most Allah fearing." The people said, "We do not want to ask you about this." He said, "The most honorable person is Joseph, Allah's Prophet, the son of Allah's Prophet, the son of Allah's Prophet, the son of Allah's Khalil" The people said, 'We do not want to ask you about this." He said," Then you want to ask me about the origins of the Arabs? People are of various origins. The best in the pre-lslamic period are the best in Islam, provided they comprehend (the religious knowledge)."
The "Ibrahim" (not Abraham) of qur'an is a convoluted mess of Jewish and Christian and Sabean, etc source material. In other words, not a real historic person, but simply one made up borrowing from real sources and altering them.
