Ishmael

Expulsion of Ishmael and His Mother. Part of Art by Gustave Doré.

Ishmael (Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Arabic: إسماعيلإ‎ ʾIsmāʿīl) was the first son of Abraham and Hagar, an Egyptian servant.

He was a son of Abraham, descendant of Arpachshad, son of Shem, son of Noah, grandson of Methuselah and coming from line of Seth, son of Adam and Eve, first human.

In the Book of Genesis

When Abraham (then called Abram) was married to Sarai for ten years without having any children, Sarai told Abram to marry her Egyptian servant Hagar and he did. After getting pregnant, Hagar became arrogant so Sarai treated her badly and she ran away. Then an Angel convinced Hagar to go back and said her son would be called Ishmael. Hagar gave birth to a son and Abram named him Ishmael.

When Abram was circumcised, G-d changed his name to Abraham. And Ishmael was also circumcised and was thirteen years old at the time. One year later, Sarai whose name was now Sarah gave birth to a son while she was 90 years old and Abraham was 100. Abraham circumcised the boy eight days later and named him Isaac. When Sarah saw how Ishmael played with his half-brother Isaac, she told Abraham “cast out this slave woman and her son from before me” but Abraham didn’t want to do that so G-d told Abraham to listen to Sarah. So Abraham sent Ishmael and Hagar away with water. Then Ishmael got sick so Hagar gave him all the water and then looked for more so an Angel showed her a well. Hagar gave Ishmael water and he got better. Ishmael went to Egypt, married an Egyptian woman and became the father of twelve sons and one daughter.

Death of Abraham

After Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron next to his wife Sarah

Basemath

After Ishmael died, his daughter Basemath married Esau, who was one of Isaac’s sons.

Sale of Joseph

When Judah and his brothers sold Joseph into slavery, they sold him to the Ishmaelites, who were Ishmael’s grandchildren.

Islam

In Islam, Ishmael is believed to be the ancestor of the Arabs, while Isaac is the ancestor of the Jews.