"Call me Ishmael." This line is familiar to everyone who has read Melville's classic, Moby Dick. This first line introduces the man who will narrate the story and also alerts the reader that the book is more than a story about whaling. Who was Ishmael?

If one consults the book of Genesis one learns that God spoke to Abraham and told him to take his family and go east to the land of Canaan. Abraham thus made a new Covent with YHWH.God promised that Abraham’s seed would be the foundation of a people. Legend has it that Abraham took several members of his family including his wife Sarah. Since Sarah had not borne any children she told Abraham to have a child with her maid Hagar. The child born of this union was Ishmael. Fourteen years later, Sarah became pregnant and Isaac was born.

Sarah was concerned because Ishmael had the right of inheritance because he was Abraham’s first born son. She persuaded Abraham to banish Hagar and her son Ishmael saying, "Cast out this bondswoman and her son; for the son of this bondswoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." So, Abraham gave Hagar some bread and water and told her to go East. Ishmael nearly died of dehydration in the desert, but Hagar found a spring (with the help of God according to scripture) and saved him.

You might say that the quarrel between Jews and Arabs began then with the disinheriting of Ishmael, the founder of the Arab nation, by Isaac, father of Jacob, also called Israel. It's been a long quarrel, lasting for about 3,800 years.

Hagar and Ishmael went to what is now Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Legend has it that later Abraham and Ishmael built a temple there. Part of the Temple is a black stone, which Islamic legend believes was given to Adam by god and came from out side of the earth. Recent scientific studies reveal that it is mostly a meteorite.

This Temple was in use when Mohammad appeared, in 690 AD, and founded the Islamic religion. Muslims trace their origin as a people back to Ishmael.

Mohammad said that the angel Gabriel appeared to him several times. On one such occasion Gabriel instructed Mohammad to clear the temple of all idols. He also stated that a true believer (a practicing Muslim) must make a pilgrimage to Mecca and circumnavigate the temple at least once in their life.

Ramadan, the holy month of Islam and ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, is the most popular time to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2004, Ramadan began on the 16th of October. The temple is the most holy of all sites in the Islamic world and sits outside of Mecca near a natural well. Caravans have stopped at this well since earliest times. Today, it is relatively deserted except during Ramadan when two million pilgrims are allowed to visit.

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Contents copyright 2004 by Dr. A. V. Persson and ParaComp, Inc. All rights reserved.

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