The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 231
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH CH. 2 tribes of Arabia are indeed the only Arabs were Ishmaelites according to claimants in the field, the Hebrew tradition. . . The 'twelve princes' (Gen. 17:20) subsequently named in Gen. 25:13ff, represent Arabian tribes or districts; notice especially Kedar, Duma (Dumatul- Jandal), Teima. The great nation is the people of Arabia. " (Jewish Foundation of Islam, p. 83). (4) According to Gen. 21:8-14 Hagar had to leave her home in order to satisfy the vanity of Sarah. If she was not taken to Hedjaz, where are her descendants found, and which is the place of her banishment? (5) After her banishment Hagar dwelt in the wilderness of Paran (Gen. 21:21). Christian writers have tried to prove that Paran is Feiran near Jebel Serbal in the Sinai Peninsula. But the great English commentator of the Old Testament, who devoted his whole life to the study of the Bible, Dr. S. R. Driver, has had to confess after all that "the site of Paran, from which the wilderness derives its name, is, however, unknown" (Deut. p. 4). On the contrary, the Arab geographers are all agreed that Paran is the name given to the hills of Hedjaz (Mu'jamul-Buldān). (6) We are told that the generations of Ishmael "dwelt from Havilah unto Shur" (Gen. 25:18) and the phrase "from Havilah unto Shur" designates the opposite extremes of Arabia (Bib. Cyc. by J. Eadie, London, 1862). (7) The Bible calls Ishmael "a wild man" (Gen. 16:12) and the word (Arābi) "a dweller of the desert" conveys almost the same sense. (8) Even Paul has admitted Hagar's connection with Arabia (Gal. 4:25). (9) Kedar was a son of Ishmael and it is admitted that his descendants settled in the southern part of Arabia (Bib. Cyc. London, 1862). (11) Similarly, the learned authors of the Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, New York, (1877, p. 685) admit that "the Arabs, from physical characteristics, language, occurrence of native traditions. . . and the testimony of the Bible are mainly and essentially Ishmaelites. " the (12) Lastly there is the opinion of Narsai, a Syrian writer who lived about a hundred years before the birth of the Holy Prophet. Mingana quotes Narsai as saying: "The raid of the sons of Hagar was more cruel even than famine, and the blow that they gave was more sore than disease; the wound of the sons of Abraham is like the venom of a serpent and perhaps there is a remedy for the poison of reptiles but not for theirs―let us always blame the foul inclination of the sons of Hagar, and specially the people (the tribe) of Kuraish who are like animals. " (Leaves from Three Ancient Qurans, edited by the Rev. A. Mingana, D. D. Intro. xiii). In the face of these conclusive proofs both the objections, that (1) Ishmael was not included in the covenant which God made with Abraham, and that (2) Ishmael did not settle in Arabia or that the Holy (10) Prof. C. C. Torrey says: "The Prophet of Islam was not a descen- 231