[Sūrah ii. 134]: “Do ye say that Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob, and the Tribes were Jews, or Christians?”
[Sūrah iii. 78]: “And what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes.”
[Sūrah iv. 161]: “And we inspired Abraham and Ishmael, and Jacob and the Tribes.”
[Sūrah vi. 86]: “And Ishmael and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot.”
[Sūrah xxi. 85]: “And Ishmael, and Idrīs, and Ẕū ʾl-Kifl, all these were of the patient.”
[Sūrah xxxviii. 48]: “And remember Ishmael, and Elisha, and Ẕū ʾl-Kifl, for each was righteous.”
(4) According to the Old Testament, Ishmael had twelve sons, and Muḥammadan tradition also agrees with this:—
[Genesis xxv. 12]: “Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, according to their generations: the first-born of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, and Hadar, and Tema, and Jetur, and Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their castles, twelve princes according to their nations.”
The names of these sons of Ishmael can still be distinguished amongst the tribes, the names of which occur in Muḥammadan history: Nebajoth (Nabayus̤), the founder of the Nabathean nation, who succeeded the Idumeans in Arabia, and were an important people in Northern Arabia. Kedar (Qaidar) was also a famous tribe, so famous that the Badawīs of the desert applied the name to all Jews. Dumah is still preserved in the name Dūmatu ʾl-Jandal. Tema corresponds with Taimah, and Jetur with the Jadūr of modern Arabia. Muḥammad is said to have been descended from Ishmael’s second son Kedar (Qaidar), through one named ʿAdnān. The period between ʿAdnān and Ishmael is doubtful. Some reckon forty generations, others only four. Umm Salmah, one of the Prophet’s wives, said ʿAdnān was the son of ʿAdad, the son of Humaisa, son of Nabat, son of Ishmael. (See Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ, p. 62.) Muslim historians, however, admit that the pedigree of Muḥammad beyond ʿAdnān is uncertain; but they are unanimous in tracing his descent to ʿAdnān in the following line: (1) Muḥammad, (2) ʿAbdu ʾllāh, (3) Abū Mut̤t̤talib, (4) Hāshim, (5) ʿAbdu Manāf, (6) Quṣaiy, (7) Kilāb, (8) Murrah, (9) Kaʿb, (10) Luwaiy, (11) G͟hālib, (12) Fihr, (13) Mālik, (14) An-Naẓr, (15) Kinānah, (16) K͟huzaimah, (17) Mudrikah, (18) Al-Yaʾs, (19) Muẓar, (20) Nizār, (21) Maʿadd, (22) ʿAdnān.
Syud Ahmad Khan Bahadur, traces the descent of Muḥammad to Kedar, the son of Ishmael, and the view is one in accordance with that of most Muslim writers. In the time of Isaiah the two chief Arabian tribes seem to have been the descendants of Nebajoth and Kedar. (See [Isaiah lx. 7].) “All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered unto thee, the rams of Nebajoth shall minister unto thee.”