Who were the Ishmaelites in the Bible? Understand the history of the Ishmaelites and learn who the descendants of Ishmael are today.
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The Ishmaelites were the people descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and the Egyptian Hagar. Ishmael, the ancestor of the Ishmaelites, was born when Abraham was about 86 years old. At around sixteen years of age, after the birth of Isaac, Ishmael and his mother left Abraham's house and settled in the desert of Paran.
Ishmael married an Egyptian woman, and their children gave rise to twelve tribes. These Ishmaelite tribes lived as nomads in the Arabian Peninsula. The Ishmaelites also intermingled with other peoples descended from Abraham, such as the Midianites and Edomites. Over time, the Ishmaelites became a large and powerful people, and their history was marked by conflicts. The Ishmaelite-Midianites were often in opposition to the Israelites. Due to the many mixtures that occurred among the peoples of the Ancient East, it's challenging to determine precisely what happened to the Ishmaelites, but even today, many Arabs claim to be direct descendants of Abraham through Ishmael.