ISHMAEL Mel). Yishmael, will bear"), the first-born of Abraham, by Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid of his wife Sarah. His character is found foretold before his birth by an angel, who met Hagar sitting by a well in the wilderness on the way to Shur, whither she hiid,fled to avoid the harsh treatment of her mistress: "And he will be a wild [literally, "a wild ass-1 man; his band against every man, and every man's band against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren" (Gen. xvi. 12). Expelled front his father's house, along with his mother, when he was about the age of 15, he went into the southern wilderness, where he grew up to manhood, and became famous as an archer. Scripture represents Ishmael in a not unfavorable light, and it was predicted that he should become a great nation. This "great nation" is commonly believed to be the Arabian; and there is no good reason for doubtina. that at least the
northern. Arabs—the wild Bedouins who roam over the great wastes between the penin sula of Sinai and the Persian gulf—may„ to a certain degr,ee, be the descendants of Ishmael. There is, however, not a shadow of reason, as all scholars now admit, for the notion that the founders of the great Joktanite and Cushite monarchies in the s. of Arabia were of Ishmaelitic origin; and the description given in Scripture of the character and habits of Ishmael and his descendants does not in the least apply to these men arehies. The Bedouins of northern and central Arabia, on the other hand, are full of Ishmaelitie traditions. Mohammed asserted his descent from Ishmael, and the Moham medan doctors declare that Ishmael, and not Isaac, was offered up in sacrifice—trans ferring the scene of this act front Moriall in Palestine to Mt. Arafat near Mecca.