science

Ishmaelites

Ishmaelites is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ishmaelites rather than just read about it. In short: The Ishmaelites (Hebrew: יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים, romanized: Yīšməʿēʾlīm; Arabic: بَنِي إِسْمَاعِيل, romanized: Banī Ismā'īl, lit. 'sons of Ishmael') were a collection of various Arab tribes, tribal confederations and small kingdoms described in Abrahamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael. According to the Quran, Ishmael was a prophet and was the first son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar.

Key takeaways

Ishmaelites belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ishmaelites to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ishmaelites from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Ishmaelites (Hebrew: יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים, romanized: Yīšməʿēʾlīm; Arabic: بَنِي إِسْمَاعِيل, romanized: Banī Ismā'īl, lit. 'sons of Ishmael') were a collection of various Arab tribes, tribal confederations and small kingdoms described in Abrahamic tradition as being descended from and named after Ishmael. According to the Quran, Ishmael was a prophet and was the first son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar. According to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, Ishmael had one daughter and twelve sons, the "twelve princes" mentioned in Genesis 17:20. In Islamic tradition, this gave rise to the "Twelve Tribes of Ishmael", Arab tribes from which the early Muslims were descended. In Jewish tradition, the Twelve Tribes of Israel were descended from Abraham and his wife Sarah's son, Isaac, via Isaac's son Jacob. These traditions are accepted by both Islam and Judaism. Genesis and 1 Chronicles describe the Qedarites as a tribe descended from the second son of Ishmael, Kedar. Some Abrahamic scholars described the historic tribe of Nabataeans as descendants of Nebaioth based on the similarity of sounds, but others reject this connection. Different Islamic groups assign the ancestry of the Islamic prophet Muhammad either to Kedar, or to Nebaioth. Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions refer to the Ishmaelites as Sumu'ilu, a tribal confederation that would take control of the incense trade route during the dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to the north. Christian Frevel holds that while there certainly existed a tribe of Sumu'il in the eighth century BCE, it is possible that the biblical tradition describing the existence of Ishmaelites in the Middle Bronze Age is unhistorical and emerged no earlier than the eighth or seventh centuries.

Hebrew Bible

According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham's first wife was named Sarah and her Egyptian slave was named Hagar. However, Sarah could not conceive. In chapter 16, Sarah (then Sarai) gave her slave Hagar in marriage to Abraham, in order that Abraham might have an heir.

And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian ... and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. Hagar conceived Ishmael from Abraham, and the Ishmaelites descend from him. After Abraham pleaded with God for Ishmael to live under his blessing, chapter 17 states:

But 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. Chapter 25 lists his sons:

According to the documentary hypothesis, Genesis 25 would have been added during the Persian Period by the Priestly source, who attributed the known Ishmaelite (Shumu'ilu) Tribes as the names of the sons of Ishmael. However, the name and narrative of Ishmael found in other parts of Genesis would antedate this by centuries. The Hebrew Bible already contained the story of Ishmael, and it would later come across Ishmaelite Tribes, and they would invent names for Ishmael's sons, named after the various tribes in the Ishmaelite Confederacy.

Comparing aspects of the descendants of Ishmael and Israel (Jacob):

Islamic narrative

According to the Quran, "Allah has gifted all of Ishmael, Alyasa, Yunus and Lut a favor above the nations. With some of their forefathers and their offspring and their brethren, We chose them and guided them unto a straight path". (Quran 6:86). Ibrahim and Hajar bore the prophetic child, who was named Ishmael by Allah through one of his angels. God ordered Ibrahim to bring Ishmael and Hajar to present-day Mecca. He prayed for them after leaving them, saying: "O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivatable valley by Your Sacred House (the Kaaba in Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Ṣalāt. So fill some hearts among men with love towards them, and (O Allah) provide them with fruits so that they may give thanks." Ishmael and Hagar were very thirsty, and Hagar ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa in search of water for her son. After her seventh run between the hills, an angel appeared before her. He helped them, saying that God heard Ishmael's cry and would provide them with water; Hajar stopped the water with stones. Muhammad said, "May Allah forgive Hajar if she doesn't stop the water, there was a great water fountain." A group of people passed by, and saw the well and Hajar and Ishmael sitting there. They asked Hagar for some of the water from the well; she agreed, and an Arab tribe began there. Ishmael grew up there and learned Arabic from the tribe while waiting for his father. When Ibrahim arrived in Marwa, he learned that his son was alive. When young Ishmael saw his father, he ran to him and they embraced. Allah (God) decided to test Ibrahim again, and he dreamed two nights in a row of sacrificing Ishmael. Ibrahim blindfolded himself, because he could not bear to see his son suffer, then he placed the knife on Ishmael neck and wield the knife, when he opened his blindfold he found Ishmael standing next to him and instead of Ishmael there was a lamb. Ibrahim knew it was a test from Allah and then he received a command from Allah to rebuild the mosque for Ishmael's tribe which had been constructed by Adam, the first Islamic prophet, and Ibrahim and Ishmael began building the Kaaba. Ibrahim built the mosque, and Ishmael provided the stones, When the walls were built and the roof was almost complete, Ibrahim stood on the miraculous small stone to finish the roof.

Other traditions

Samaritan Asaṭīr The Samaritan book Asaṭīr adds:

Josephus' Antiquities

Josephus also lists the sons and states that they "inhabit the lands which are between Euphrates and the Red Sea, the name of which country is Nabathæa".

Targum Onkelos The Targum Onkelos annotates Genesis 25:16, describing the extent of their settlements: "And they dwelt from Hindekaia [India] unto Chalutsa, which is by the side of Mizraim [Egypt], from thy going up towards Arthur [Assyria]."

Kebra Nagast The 14th century Kebra Nagast says "And therefore the children of Ishmael became kings over Tereb, and over Kebet, and over Nôbâ, and Sôba, and Kuergue, and Kîfî, and Mâkâ, and Môrnâ, and Fînḳânâ, and 'Arsîbânâ, and Lîbâ, and Mase'a, for they were the seed of Shem."

Historical records using the term

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ishmaelites

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ishmaelites claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ishmaelites before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ishmaelites ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ishmaelites

In research: Ishmaelites appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ishmaelites in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ishmaelites is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Abraham, Ancient peoples of the Near East, Ethnonyms, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ishmaelites outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ishmaelites in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ishmaelites means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ishmaelites out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ishmaelites in simple terms?

Why does Ishmaelites matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ishmaelites?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ishmaelites.