Isma'il

Ismā'īl (إسماعيل‎ Ishmael) was the son of Abraham from the Egyptian concubine Hagar. He is recognized in Islam as an important prophet and patriarch. The Bible describes him as a "wild donkey of a man" whose hand will be "against everyone" and "he will live in hostility toward all his brothers".^[1] Islamic traditions consider Isma'il to be the ancestor of Arab people,^[2] excluding those who are descendants of Ya'rub. Arabs who are from Isma'il-descendant tribes are occasionally referred to as "Arabized-Arabs" to highlight their ancestry. The Prophet Muhammad was of these Arabs. However, there is no archaeological or historical evidence that Isma'il was the ancestor of the Arabs, and there are good reasons to believe this was, in fact, not the case. There exists, however a conjecture based upon writings some 2000 years after his death.