Ishmael on the Border: Rabbinic Portrayals of the First Arab

Introduction

Introduction M ore than any other figure in the Hebrew Bible, Ishmael evokes a variety of associations from nomads to Moby Dick. A recent question put to me by a rabbi highlights the unusual place Ishmael has in Jewish thought: “So, your work is not about Rabbi Ishmael, but the Ishmael of Islam?” Though Ishmael is a prominent figure in Islam’s theological history, and in Arab genealogy, the rabbi’s question reveals a widely held assumption about the figure of Ishmael; namely, that he plays no role in the Jewish tradition. Today more than ever, this assumption plays itself out in references to the putatively antagonistic brothers “Isaac and Ishmael,” who have come to represent Judaism and Islam. The rabbi’s question implicitly relegates Ishmael to a status that inaccurately reflects Ishmael’s position vis-à-vis Judaism. Indeed, since the medieval period, Ishmael has often, but not exclusively, symbolized Islam. Ishmael’s place nonetheless is marginal, but is it marginal within the Jewish tradition. As Abraham’s rejected son, he cannot play a consequential role in Judaism. At the same time, as a figure who was part of early Israelite history, he cannot be excluded—set fully apart—from that history. Because rabbinic literature implicitly recognizes his marginalized status, it can neither embrace nor disavow him unequivocally. To answer the rabbi’s question, this work is not about R. Ishmael or Islam’s Ishmael. Rather, it focuses narrowly on the figure of Ishmael in classical rabbinic literature from the tannaitic period (ca. first through third centuries CE) through the early Middle Ages and traces the nuances and shifts in rabbinic portrayals of Ishmael over a period of a thousand years. Compilations such as the Tosefta, Sifre Deuteromony, Genesis 1 Rabbah, and the Tanh .uma literature provide a basis for distinguishing trends in the ways in which the rabbis grappled with the elusive nature of Ishmael’s character. This work also examines rabbinic depictions of Esau, the Ishmaelites, and the children of Keturah to the extent that an understanding of their portrayal sheds light on the rabbinic treatment of Ishmael. A study of rabbinic sources dealing with Ishmael leads to the following conclusions: The portrayal of Ishmael before the rise of Islam can be neutral, positive, or negative; after the emergence of Islam, however, he is consistently portrayed more negatively. Despite the connection made between Ishmael and Arabs in early Jewish writings such as Jubilees and the works of Josephus, as well as in tannaitic texts, Ishmael rarely symbolizes the Arab people but rather, like the Ishmaelites and the children of Keturah , he often represents the rabbinic Other. By and large, the literature on these biblical figures reflects the rabbinic self-legitimizing emphasis on Israel’s election over and against other peoples in general, and not a fullblown engagement with Christianity. In the course of examining tannaitic depictions of these biblical figures , we discover that very little is said about them. While they are referred to more often in amoraic compilations (ca. third through fifth centuries CE) such as Genesis Rabbah, Leviticus Rabbah, and Lamentations Rabbah , as well as in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, the increase is not substantial, and may in large measure be attributed to other factors such as the type of literature produced in this period. In pre-Islamic midrashim (here I am referring to rabbinic interpretations prior to the mid-seventh century), the rabbis create a dichotomy between the unfit issue of Abraham and Isaac and the righteous children of Jacob; the rabbis conceive of Israel as the righteous nation chosen by God to fulfill a unique role as God’s people. After the rise of Islam, this rabbinic self-identification vis-à-vis an invented Other, by means of the midrashic process, plays a less pronounced role. In midrashic corpora redacted after the seventh century, however, we find not only midrashim that separate Israel from Ishmael in terms of fit and unfit status, but also midrashim that depict him in a more derogatory manner. In these later texts, the referent is no longer a fabricated antipode, but rather a real entity, that is, Islam. Vituperative references to Ishmael are in large measure an internal rabbinic response to Islam’s political hegemony and have less to do with its religious claim to Abraham through Ishmael , although that, too, eventually becomes a contributing factor. Indeed, the changing ethnic, religious, and political landscape of the Near East in the seventh century affected...