Abraham is mentioned in the Old Testament as a central figure in the Genesis narrative as the father of Ishmael and Isaac, who would later go on to father Israel (Jacob). As such, he is seen as the progenitor of the Children of Israel, being called “a father of many nations” by God (Genesis 17:5). The Israelites were one of these nations, as mentioned above, and the Ishmaelites the other. But who are these Ishmaelites?
The Bible associates the Ishmaelites as being inhabitants of the land of Paran, as it was the land God ordered Abraham to leave Ishmael and Hagar at. Historically, almost all scholars of the Old Testament have recognized the Ishmaelites to mean the Arabs. What is interesting is how the Arabs held the same view of their ancestry, according to traditional Islamic and Arabic Sources [1].
So how did this convergence come about? How did both the Arabs and the Israelites share an understanding of their common ancestry despite being culturally, linguistically, and even geographically distinct entities? An easy way to solve the problem would be to assume that the Arabs borrowed the idea of a common ancestry with the Israelites through a semi-mythological patriarch from the Jews. This would seem plausible considering that both Abraham and Ishmael are mentioned in the Book of Genesis at least a thousand years before evidence of Abraham comes to us from Arabic sources [2]. There are two ways this was possible:
i) If we are to assume that the Arabs had no knowledge of Abraham prior to Islam, then one could say that he was a character introduced by the Prophet Muhammad who had his sources in the Judeo-Christian tradition (as is claimed by a great many academics working in the field of Qur’anic studies who try to superimpose a purely naturalistic explanation to the origins of the Qur’an)
ii) On the other hand, considering the possibility that the Arabs did have the Abrahamic tradition with them from before Islam, then it could be that they had adopted it from the Jews or Christians sometime in the past.
In this article I attempt to demonstrate a possible explanation to this issue.
Ishmael in the Old Testament
According to Genesis, Ishmael was Abraham’s first-born whom he had with Hagar. At the age of 14, Ishmael and his mother were sent away by Abraham into the wilderness of Beersheba, where they soon ran out of water. Hagar not wanting to see her son’s death due to starvation kept herself at a distance from him and wept. At this, God sent an angel to her saying, “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.” And God “opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water”, from which she drew to save Ishmael’s life and her own. “And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.” [3]
After a while, Hagar and Ishmael settled in the Desert of Paran where he married a woman from Egypt. He had twelve sons with her, each of whom became tribal chiefs. His sons in order of their births are given as:
- Nebaioth
- Kedar
- Adbeel
- Mibsam
- Mishma
- Dumah
- Massa
- Hadad
- Tema
- Jetur
- Naphish
- Kedem [4]
It is important to keep these names in mind as we dig a little deeper into the subject.
Ishmael in pre-Islamic Arabic Sources
Ishmael is explicitly referenced only a few times in pre-Islamic Arabic sources. Below I mention some of these instances:
- The pre-Islamic poet, Umayyah ibn Abi As-Salt mentions the sacrifice story of Ishmael in a verse:
بكره لم يكن ليصبر عنه أو يراه في معشر أقتال
“[The sacrifice] of his first-born of whose separation he [Abraham] could not bear nor could he see him surrounded by enemies” [5][6]
2. Zuhayr (d. 609 AD) another pre-Islamic poet has an intriguing phrase in his Mu’allaqa (one of the seven legendary poems of pre-Islamic Arabia):
فَأَقْسَمْتُ بالبَيْتِ الذي طافَ حوْلَهُ رِجالٌ بَنَوْهُ من قُرَيشٍ وَجُرْهُمِ
“So I swear by the house around which men circumbulate, men who built it from [the tribes] of Quraysh and Jurhum.” [7]
There seems to be no mention of either Abraham or Ishmael here, but it will be made clear in the following section.
In Islamic Sources
Abraham is mentioned multiple times in the Qur’an as a monotheist and one of the greatest prophets. The Qur’an calls him the friend of God and as someone Muslims must look up to (Qur’an 4:125). The story of Abraham sacrificing Ishmael (as opposed to Isaac as recounted in the Old Testament) is mentioned numerous times within the Qur’an. The Prophetic traditions (hadith) mention in detail the story of Ishmael and Abraham in Mecca. One such tradition is mentioned below:
Narrated Ibn `Abbas:
The first lady to use a girdle was the mother of Ishmael. She used a girdle so that she might hide her tracks from Sarah. Abraham brought her and her son Ishmael while she was suckling him, to a place near the Ka`ba under a tree on the spot of Zamzam, at the highest place in the mosque. During those days there was nobody in Mecca, nor was there any water So he made them sit over there and placed near them a leather bag containing some dates, and a small water-skin containing some water, and set out homeward. Ishmael’s mother followed him saying, “O Abraham! Where are you going, leaving us in this valley where there is no person whose company we may enjoy, nor is there anything (to enjoy)?” She repeated that to him many times, but he did not look back at her Then she asked him, “Has Allah ordered you to do so?” He said, “Yes.” She said, “Then He will not neglect us,” and returned while Abraham proceeded onwards, and on reaching the Thaniya where they could not see him, he faced the Ka`ba, and raising both hands, invoked Allah saying the following prayers: ‘O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring dwell in a valley without cultivation, by Your Sacred House (Ka`ba at Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may offer prayer perfectly. So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits, so that they may give thanks.’ (14.37) Ishmael’s mother went on suckling Ishmael and drinking from the water (she had). When the water in the water-skin had all been used up, she became thirsty and her child also became thirsty. She started looking at him (i.e. Ishmael) tossing in agony; She left him, for she could not endure looking at him, and found that the mountain of Safa was the nearest mountain to her on that land. She stood on it and started looking at the valley keenly so that she might see somebody, but she could not see anybody. Then she descended from Safa and when she reached the valley, she tucked up her robe and ran in the valley like a person in distress and trouble, till she crossed the valley and reached the Marwa mountain where she stood and started looking, expecting to see somebody, but she could not see anybody. She repeated that (running between Safa and Marwa) seven times.” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “This is the source of the tradition of the walking of people between them (i.e. Safa and Marwa). When she reached the Marwa (for the last time) she heard a voice and she asked herself to be quiet and listened attentively. She heard the voice again and said, ‘O, (whoever you may be)! You have made me hear your voice; have you got something to help me?” And behold! She saw an angel at the place of Zamzam, digging the earth with his heel (or his wing), till water flowed from that place. She started to make something like a basin around it, using her hand in this way, and started filling her water-skin with water with her hands, and the water was flowing out after she had scooped some of it.” The Prophet (ﷺ) added, “May Allah bestow Mercy on Ishmael’s mother! Had she let the Zamzam (flow without trying to control it) (or had she not scooped from that water) (to fill her water-skin), Zamzam would have been a stream flowing on the surface of the earth.” The Prophet (ﷺ) further added, “Then she drank (water) and suckled her child. The angel said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid of being neglected, for this is the House of Allah which will be built by this boy and his father, and Allah never neglects His people.’ The House (i.e. Ka`ba) at that time was on a high place resembling a hillock, and when torrents came, they flowed to its right and left. She lived in that way till some people from the tribe of Jurhum or a family from Jurhum passed by her and her child, as they (i.e. the Jurhum people) were coming through the way of Kada’. They landed in the lower part of Mecca where they saw a bird that had the habit of flying around water and not leaving it. They said, ‘This bird must be flying around water, though we know that there is no water in this valley.’ They sent one or two messengers who discovered the source of water, and returned to inform them of the water. So, they all came (towards the water).” The Prophet (ﷺ) added, “Ishmael’s mother was sitting near the water. They asked her, ‘Do you allow us to stay with you?” She replied, ‘Yes, but you will have no right to possess the water.’ They agreed to that.” The Prophet (ﷺ) further said, “Ishmael’s mother was pleased with the whole situation as she used to love to enjoy the company of the people. So, they settled there, and later on they sent for their families who came and settled with them so that some families became permanent residents there. The child (i.e. Ishmael) grew up and learnt Arabic from them and (his virtues) caused them to love and admire him as he grew up, and when he reached the age of puberty they made him marry a woman from amongst them. After Ishmael’s mother had died, Abraham came after Ishmael’s marriage in order to see his family that he had left before, but he did not find Ishmael there. When he asked Ishmael’s wife about him, she replied, ‘He has gone in search of our livelihood.’ Then he asked her about their way of living and their condition, and she replied, ‘We are living in misery; we are living in hardship and destitution,’ complaining to him. He said, ‘When your husband returns, convey my salutation to him and tell him to change the threshold of the gate (of his house).’ When Ishmael came, he seemed to have felt something unusual, so he asked his wife, ‘Has anyone visited you?’ She replied, ‘Yes, an old man of so-and-so description came and asked me about you and I informed him, and he asked about our state of living, and I told him that we were living in a hardship and poverty.’ On that Ishmael said, ‘Did he advise you anything?’ She replied, ‘Yes, he told me to convey his salutation to you and to tell you to change the threshold of your gate.’ Ishmael said, ‘It was my father, and he has ordered me to divorce you. Go back to your family.’ So, Ishmael divorced her and married another woman from amongst them (i.e. Jurhum). Then Abraham stayed away from them for a period as long as Allah wished and called on them again but did not find Ishmael. So he came to Ishmael’s wife and asked her about Ishmael. She said, ‘He has gone in search of our livelihood.’ Abraham asked her, ‘How are you getting on?’ asking her about their sustenance and living. She replied, ‘We are prosperous and well-off (i.e. we have everything in abundance).’ Then she thanked Allah’ Abraham said, ‘What kind of food do you eat?’ She said. ‘Meat.’ He said, ‘What do you drink?’ She said, ‘Water.” He said, “O Allah! Bless their meat and water.” The Prophet added, “At that time they did not have grain, and if they had grain, he would have also invoked Allah to bless it.” The Prophet (ﷺ) added, “If somebody has only these two things as his sustenance, his health and disposition will be badly affected, unless he lives in Mecca.” The Prophet (ﷺ) added,” Then Abraham said Ishmael’s wife, “When your husband comes, give my regards to him and tell him that he should keep firm the threshold of his gate.’ When Ishmael came back, he asked his wife, ‘Did anyone call on you?’ She replied, ‘Yes, a good-looking old man came to me,’ so she praised him and added. ‘He asked about you, and I informed him, and he asked about our livelihood and I told him that we were in a good condition.’ Ishmael asked her, ‘Did he give you any piece of advice?’ She said, ‘Yes, he told me to give his regards to you and ordered that you should keep firm the threshold of your gate.’ On that Ishmael said, ‘It was my father, and you are the threshold (of the gate). He has ordered me to keep you with me.’ Then Abraham stayed away from them for a period as long as Allah wished, and called on them afterwards. He saw Ishmael under a tree near Zamzam, sharpening his arrows. When he saw Abraham, he rose up to welcome him (and they greeted each other as a father does with his son or a son does with his father). Abraham said, ‘O Ishmael! Allah has given me an order.’ Ishmael said, ‘Do what your Lord has ordered you to do.’ Abraham asked, ‘Will you help me?’ Ishmael said, ‘I will help you.’ Abraham said, Allah has ordered me to build a house here,’ pointing to a hillock higher than the land surrounding it.” The Prophet (ﷺ) added, “Then they raised the foundations of the House (i.e. the Ka`ba). Ishmael brought the stones and Abraham was building, and when the walls became high, Ishmael brought this stone and put it for Abraham who stood over it and carried on building, while Ishmael was handing him the stones, and both of them were saying, ‘O our Lord! Accept (this service) from us, Verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.’ The Prophet (ﷺ) added, “Then both of them went on building and going round the Ka`ba saying: O our Lord ! Accept (this service) from us, Verily, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.” (2.127)
Sahih Al-Bukhari 3364
The parallels with the Genesis narrative are clear in this tradition. However, the differences are significant. The desert of Paran is the valley of Mecca, and the tribe that came to inhabit the valley is named Jurhum. This is the same tribe Zuhayr mentions in his verse.
One may now be compelled to ask, when are all these traditions dated to? The Prophetic tradition is reported by Imam Bukhari (d. 256 AH/870 AD) and has been rigorously authenticated. Hence, one can say with a great degree of confidence that it does indeed come from the time of the Prophet. But what about the two poems?
The Mu’allaqat, the seven greatest poems of pre-Islamic Arabia, were, like almost all other forms of Arabic literature, transmitted orally until they were compiled by Hammad Al-Rawiya (d. 8th century AD). This time lag of about a century and a half between the poems’ alleged composition and their compilation caused skepticism among many academics on the “dubious origins” of the poems. One of the most popular works of the last century which championed the notion that these poems were a post-Islamic fabrication came from Taha Husayn, an Egyptian academic in 1925. Husayn claimed that nearly all of the pre-Islamic poetry that we have now was a later forgery done by Muslims during the Abbasid rule. In Husayn’s own words,
“..the conclusion I reached was that the general mass of what we call pre-Islamic literature had nothing whatever to do with the pre-Islamic period, but was just simply fabricated after the coming of Islam. It is therefore Islamic, and represents the life, the inclination, the desires of Muslims, rather than the life of pre-Islamic Arabs.”
[8]
As was to be expected, Husayn’s work did not go unchallenged, and was criticized heavily by both Arab and Western scholarship for the lack of care he used in his methodology. Professor Michael Zwettler states:
“For, though the critics from Abu Amr b. al-Ala’ and Ibn Sallam al-Jumahi to Ahlwardt, Margoliouth, and Taha Husayn have cast doubt both on the reliability of many transmitters of the ancient poetry, their criticisms have generally failed to consider certain important facts that have since been brought out in a decisive fashion. One may, I think, grant that these doubts, at least in their extreme form as expressed by Margoliouth, and Taha Husayn, have been laid to rest through the efforts of later scholars.”
[9]
Professor David Margoliouth, a Professor at the University of Oxford released a similar work titled “The Origins Of Arabic Poetry” in the very same year Taha Husayn released his infamous work. His reasons for believing in a mass-forgery of the pre-Islamic corpus were identical to those held by Husayn, which is why nearly all of the criticism that was leveled against Husayn’s work was shared by Margoliouth. He was criticized by none other than A.J. Arberry of Cambridge University who said:
“The sophistry – I hesitate to say dishonesty – of certain of Professor Margoliouth’s arguments is only too apparent, quite unworthy of a man who was undoubtedly one of the greatest erudites of his generation.”
[10]
It would then seem clear that none of the arguments presented forth by proponents of such a claim were taken seriously by experts in the field. What then is the majority view regarding pre-Islamic poetry? Zwettler notes:
“The poetry of Arabs, in the ages which preceded the rise of Islamism, was perpetuated by oral tradition; for in ancient times, when writing was not used or scarcely used, memory was exercised and strengthened to a degree now almost unknown. In those countries of Arabia where Arabian poetry may be justly considered to have had its origin or to have attained its earliest growth, there lived reciters, or Rawis, as the Arabs called them, who got by heart numerous songs of their poets, and recited them, occasionally, in public assemblies and private parties… This impression, in essence, has been shared by a great majority of medieval and modern scholars who have dealt to any degree with Arabic poetry.”
[11]
To demonstrate the absurdity of Husayn and Margoliouth’s argument, I’d like to present a little gem I came across a long time ago when I was looking into early Islamic inscriptions:
This rock inscription was found in Makkah and was dated to 98 AH/716-717 AD. The contents of this inscription is a pre-Islamic poem which has been attributed to Tubba’, the king of Yemen by Ibn Qutayba. [12]
Taking into consideration the dating of this text, this would mean that Hammad Al-Rawiya was only 5 years old at the time it was written. Robert Hoyland comments on the inscription saying that it gives “a little push to the idea that the mass of material that we have ostensibly going back to pre-Islamic times, in particular a vast wealth of poetry, does genuinely belong to that period”. [13] Elsewhere, Hoyland notes on the nature of pre-Islamic poetry:
“For a long time it was fiercely debated whether these poems were genuine or not, but recent studies have demonstrated how pre-literate peoples can effectively preserve their traditions over the course of centuries, and this has constrained the discussion to the issue of minor contamination rather than that of major fabrication.”
[14]
The reason I wanted to go into this long-winded discussion on the authenticity of pre-Islamic poetry was to show how it is highly probable that the Mu’allaqa of Zuhayr does come from pre-Islamic times. Considering this premise, it would not be too much of a stretch to assume that the story of Ishmael at Mecca as narrated by the Prophet was well known to the Arabs before Islam. We can therefore confidently say that it was not the Prophet who was able to make thousands of Arabs believe in a patriarch they had never heard of before.
This still however, does not negate the idea that sometime in the Arabs’ history they had borrowed Ishmael and Abraham from the Israelites.
The Qedarites
The Qedarites were a large nomadic kingdom that controlled much of North Arabia between the 8th century BCE to the 4th century BCE. [15] Their existence has been attested by many Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE. An 8th century BCE inscription from Assyria places the Qedarites as inhabiting the land west to Babylon. [16]
What is quite amazing is how the Qedarites are referenced to by the Old Testament as being from the sons of Kedar, Ishmael’s second-born. Isaiah 21:16-17 says:
“This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” The LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.”
New International Version
Jeremiah 49:28-32:
Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked: This is what the LORD says: “Arise, and attack Kedar and destroy the people of the East. Their tents and their flocks will be taken; their shelters will be carried off with all their goods and camels. People will shout to them, ‘Terror on every side!’. “Flee quickly away! Stay in deep caves, you who live in Hazor,” declares the LORD. “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has plotted against you; he has devised a plan against you. “Arise and attack a nation at ease, which lives in confidence,” declares the LORD, “a nation that has neither gates nor bars; its people live far from danger. Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoils of war. I will scatter to the winds those who are in distant places and will bring disaster on them from every side,” declares the LORD.
New International Version
From the two passages above, it is clear that Kedar refers to a nation or a group of people instead of one person (in this case, Kedar the son of Ishmael). But does the Old Testament understand Kedar here to mean the Qedarites? Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon mentioned in Jeremiah, reigned from 605 BC to 562 BC. If we were to allow some laxity with regard to dating the book Jeremiah (which claims to be from the 6th century BCE, even though it’s history is somewhat chaotic), this time period would correspond well within the time frame during which the Qedarites were at the peak of their power. [17] Moreover, in Ezekiel 27, there is mention of how different nations of the world engaged in trade with the Phoenicians, and right around verses 20 and 21 one finds this:
Dedan traded in saddle blankets with you. Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your customers; they did business with you in lambs, rams and goats.
New International Version
The book of Ezekiel claims to belong to the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE. The latest date that I have come across for the scripture’s composition is the 3rd century BCE. One can see an explicit connection between Kedar and Arabia in the above passage. Even if one were to accept the 3rd century BCE as the date for the composition of the text, it is not impossible to think that it is the Qedarites that are being referenced in Ezekiel, about a century or two later. [18][19]
Nehemiah, mentions a particular Geshem or Gashmu, whom he considers an adversary for standing opposed to the building of the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 6:6:
In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king.”
New International Version
The book of Nehemiah, like all of the OT’s books, has a lot of controversy over it’s date of composition. And once again, it’s alleged dating of the 5th century BCE is called into question. However, this time, we have some extra-biblical evidence which serves to corroborate the date.
A late 5th century BCE silver bowl in lower Egypt which mentions an offering to the goddess Han-ilat by a certain “Qaynu son of Geshem, King of Kedar”. [20] Kitchen, who documents this in his book, Documentation for Ancient Arabia, states:
… First of all, we have the splendid silver bowl from the East-Delta shrine of the goddess Han-ilat, dedicated by “Qaynu son of Gashmu, King of Qedar”, in an Aramaic script of the (later) 5th century BC, and found in conjunction with a coin-hoard of Athenian tetradrachms of the 5th and early 4th centuries BC. Given such a location and dating, this Gashmu is, beyond any serious doubt, identical with the Gashmu or Geshem “the Arabian” who was a hostile contemporary of Nehemiah..”
[21]
In my humble opinion, the evidence presented above makes it clear that the Qedarites were in fact associated with Kedar by Biblical authors, and the inscription mentioned above, along with a wealth of many other Assyrian and South Arabic inscriptions (some of which have been documented by Kitchen in his book) show us that the Qedarites too called themselves Qedar.
Seeing all this, it could be said that the Biblical association of Arabs with the patriarch Kedar could be pushed back to at least the 3rd century BCE. An importance point must be noted at this stage, however; this does not prove that the Qedarites as well had the Ishmaelic tradition at this point. For all we know, Qedar might have been considered a patriarch by the Qedarites, and Biblical authors could have simply imposed their own Abrahamic legend on to the Arab tribes somewhere between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE.
The question now arises, were Abraham, Ishmael, and his twelve sons then completely unknown to the Arabs? The evidence presented in the next section will put this discussion to rest.
The fleeing Queen and the Assyrian invasion
Zabiba (زبيبة) was a “Queen of Qedar” mentioned in the Annals of Tiglath-Pilleser III who reigned between 738 and 733 BC. [22] In this Assyrian inscription, she is called the “Queen of Arabs”, but, as Eph’al explains, the title of “Queen of Arabs” in Assyrian manuscripts was a general title accorded to nomads until the reign of Assurbanipal. Her actual title then, argues Eph’al, must have been “Queen of Qedar”. [23] She is mentioned as one of many monarchs who payed tribute to Tiglath-Pilleser III.
Zabiba was succeeded by Shamsi around 733 BC, who refused to do as her predecessor had done and led a rebellion against Assyria. She was subsequently defeated by Pileser who killed over 9000 of her men, took around 50,000 cattle as war booty, and took thousands of people captive. As for Shamsi herself, she “fled into the desert like a wild-ass”, [24] as Pileser recounts in his summary inscriptions. Shamsi later decided to surrender and offered camels as tribute, because of which she was allowed to continue her rule. [25]
The Tiglath-Pileser III inscriptions also mention the names of seven other North Arabian tribes who were asked to pay tribute. The list of these names has been reproduced from Eph’al’s book below:
- Ma-as-‘-sa
- Te-ma-a-a
- Sa-ab/ba-‘-a-a
- Ha-a-a-ap-pa-a-a
- Ba-da-na-a-a
- Ha-at-te/ti-a-a
- I-di-ba-‘-il-a-a
Sargon II, who succeeded Pileser, in his inscriptions has names of four more North Arabian tribes:
- Ha-ia-pa-a
- Ta-mu-di
- I-ba-(a)-di-di
- Mar-si-(i)-ma-ni
The resemblance these names have to the sons of Ishmael is striking. Three of the seven names mentioned in the first inscription (Massa, Adbeel and Tema) are names of the sons of Ishmael. Ta-mu-di, in the second list corresponds to Thamud, well-known in the Islamic and Arabic tradition. Eph’al believes that ‘Ephah, the son of Keturah is mentioned above as Ha-ia-pa-a and Ha-a-a-ap-pa-a-a. [26]
To find four of the sons of Ishamel mentioned in the same passage as ancient Arab tribes is nothing short of amazing. But what is even more fascinating are inscriptions mentioning ‘Iauta son of Haza’il.
‘Iauta son of Haza’il was a king of Qedar who is believed to rule from 676-652 BC. Inscriptions mentioning him have been found to be in plenty, and come with some really awe-striking details:
..(b. Haza’il) is twice called “king of Sumu’iI.” In another inscription” he is called “king of Qedar,” Qedar being the tribe which dominated the oasis of Adummatu (mod. al-Jawf), 200 miles to the north of Tayma’. It would seem that Uate’, and doubtless his father Haza’il before him, controlled both Adummatu and Tayma’. This would explain why both are sometimes referred to by the more grandiloquent title, “King of the Arabs” or “King of Arabia”.
[27]
The Assyrian “Sumu’il” is believed by Winnett and Reed to be a transcription of the Arabic “Sm’l”. [28] It would not take much to realize the relationship the word has with the Classical Arabic name for Ishamel, “Isma’il”. (اسماعيل contrasted with سمعل).
Ernst Axel Knauff, a German scholar who has written extensively on the Ishamelites, albeit in German, argues that these “Sumu’il” tribes correspond to the biblical Ishmaelites. Further, he says that in accordance with Assyrian records, the Sumu’il were a coalition of tribes which inhabited North Arabia and were called “the kings, or queens of the Arabs”. [29] Knauff believes that it was between 738 and 648 BC that the Sumu’il began to be regarded as the Biblical Ishmaelites. However, this hypothesis, though it has it’s truth, is incomplete.
Genesis, Documentary Hypothesis and the Sumu’il
The inscription of Ibn Haza’il calls him both a king of Sumu’il and a king of Qedar, as if to say that the two are not completely identical (much like an Arab and a Qedarite are not completely identical, though one is the other). This lends support to Knauff’s proposition of the Sumu’il being regarded as a coalition of tribes. If the inscriptions were to call him the king of two separate tribal entities, it would be nonsensical. Thus, it is most probable that the Sumu’il and Qedar, one of which was viewed as a subgroup of the other, much like how Qedar is a subgroup of Arab. And about a century before this, we have the tribes of Massa, Adbeel, and Tema, mentioned in the vicinity of the Qedarites. All would seem to be the perfect setup to give credibility to the Biblical tradition of Ishmael.
The story of Abraham and Ishmael appears in Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament. The composition of the Genesis narrative is a very complicated topic, so I’ll try explaining it with as much simplicity as I can.
The Documentary Hypothesis is the most well-known method used by academics to date the Old Testament. According to this theory, there were four primary sources used in the composition of the OT; the J, P, E and D. J is traditionally believed to come from the 9th/10th centuries BCE and is regarded as the earliest of the four. However, this date is not entirely accepted among scholars of the Bible and there is no archaeological evidence to support the dating of any of the four sources. The story of Ishmael, it is sometimes claimed, belongs to the J, E and P sources. [30] However, like mentioned above, there is very little homogeneity among Biblical scholars as to the dating of the J, also called the Jahwist source, and it is posited by some that the majority view is that it comes from after the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE. [31]
To be fair, if we were discussing alleged composition of texts, there would not have been any reason for me to go to such lengths and read through book after book to come to the conclusion I have now. Relying on hard, physical evidence, is how I’ve treated the Qedarite narrative, and it would be unjust to not do the same for the Biblical account. Genesis, therefore, comes to us in a very fragmentary form from the 2nd century BCE through the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is the earliest extant evidence we have for the book’s composition. On the other hand, inscriptions mentioning what are regarded by the OT to mean Ishamel and his sons come from the 8th/7th century BCE. Even if we were to extend the Genesis narrative’s date back in time to the 5th century BCE based on Nehemiah mentioning Geshem, this would still mean that there was a period of about 200-300 years between the first mention of Ishmael among the Arabs and that in Genesis.
Conclusion
All in all, considering the dating of the texts mentioned, my conclusions can be summarized below;
- The earliest mention of the Qedarites comes from the 8th century BCE
- The Qedarites regard themselves as a group called the Sm’l from around the same time
- Four of the twelve sons of Ishmael are known to be Arab tribes in 8th century BCE
- The earliest manuscript evidence for Genesis, which contains the Biblical legend of Ishmael, comes from the 2nd century CE.
- Based on this, seeing that the Biblical narrative did get the names right, it is evident that instead of fabricating the Arabs’ ancestry (really though, how do you convince a group of outsiders their ancestry is something even they don’t know it is?) and passing it on to the Arabs, they simply incorporated a tradition that pre-existed among the Arabs.
It is more likely in fact, that even the Abrahamic tradition existed among the Arabs before it did among the Israelites, taking into account the time gap that exists. However, all this is mere speculation since we can’t go beyond Ishmael based on the archaeological record.
Hence, it would seem that the Arabs may very well have considered themselves belonging to a certain patriarch they called Sm’l/Isma’il, and the composers of the Old Testament, for only God knows who they were, learned this from the Arabs and codified it as part of their scripture.
References and footnotes
- See Sahih Al-Bukhari 3364
- The Book of Genesis is believed to be composed between the 10th century BCE to the 6th century BCE even though the earliest manuscript evidence comes to us from the Dead Sea Scrolls dated to around 2nd century BCE. On the other hand, the earliest physical evidence mentioning Abraham in an Arabic source is found in the Qur’anic manuscripts, dated to 7th century AD.
- Genesis Chapters 16 and 21
- Genesis 25
- Al Kashf Wa Al-Bayan, Volume 11, page 324
- It would not be entirely correct to call Umayyah ibn Abi As-Salt a pre-Islamic poet as he was contemporaneous with the Prophet Muhammad. Umayyah belonged to the tribe of Thaqeef in Ta’if and died in the year 8 AH. He is an interesting figure as his poetry is thematically very similar to the Qur’anic text. Tradition has it that he had spent time studying with the Jews and Christians and hence was well-versed on Biblical stories. It would seem then that his mentioning Abraham has no significance to the subject at hand, but I still decided to add him because it would appear from the context of his poetry that the audience knew of the story he was narrating. For more information on Umayyah, I recommend checking the following link out for those who can read Arabic: https://islamqa.info/ar/answers/293905/%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%87%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%86-%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%AA
- Mu’allaqa of Zuhayr
- Hanna, “Notes on the Historiography of the Pre-Islamic Odes” (1966)
- M. Zwettler, The Oral Tradition Of Classical Arabic Poetry: Its Character & Implications, 1978, Ohio State University Press (Columbus), p. 12.
- A. J. Arberry, The Seven Odes: The First Chapter In Arabic Literature
- M. Zwettler, The Oral Tradition Of Classical Arabic Poetry: Its Character & Implications, Ibid., p. 14.
- Saʿd b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Rāshid, Kitābāt Islāmiyya Min Makkah al-Mukarramah, 1995, Riyaḍ (Saudi Arabia), pp. 60-66.
- R. Hoyland, “Epigraphy And The Linguistic Background To The Qur’an” in G. S. Reynolds (Ed.), The Qur’an In Its Historical Context, 2008, Routledge: London & New York, p. 65.
- Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs, 2001, p. 212
- King, Philip J. (1993), Jeremiah: An Archaeological Companion
- Lipschitz, Oded; Knoppers, Gary N.; Albertz, Rainer (2007), Judah and the Judeans in the fourth century B.C.E.
- King, 1993, Ibid, p. 40
- The 3rd Century BCE dating of Ezekiel is supported by it’s earliest manuscript tradition which comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls from around the same time.
- The Qedarites, as mentioned above, are thought to be at the peak of their power between the 8th century BCE and the 4th Century BCE. Would this mean that they ceased to exist beyond the 4th Century BCE? No, rather the reason I assumed they did is because there does not seem to be any direct archaeological evidence of their existence beyond the 5th Century BCE (to my knowledge). They probably did exist until about the 2nd Century AD as is believed by some academics, but I just wanted to avoid building an argument on a speculative premise.
- Kenneth Anderson Kitchen, Documentation for Ancient Arabia, 1994, p. 49
- Ibid.
- Israel Eph’al, The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th-5th Centuries B.C., 1984, p. 82-83
- Ibid.
- I’m sorry but I couldn’t help myself from laughing when I read this
- Jan Retso, The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads, 2013
- Eph’al’s book mentioned in footnote 22 is an extremely well-written work. I highly recommend it.
- Frederick Victor Winnett, William LaForest Reed, Ancient records from North Arabia, 1970, p. 95
- Ibid.
- Jaroslav Stetkevych, Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth, 1996 (Knauff writes in German so I had to use a secondary source which quotes him)
- Nikaido, S. (2001). “Hagar and Ishmael as Literary Figures: An Intertextual Study“
- Baden, Joel S (2009). J, E, and the redaction of the Pentateuch, p. 305-313
The Hejazi Philosophorian 