Arabs are descendants of Ishmael? Evidence please.
One is only blind if they choose to be, in light of the Bible. It is difficult to dismiss the Arabs as a a people that is outside the Biblical spectrum; that is made difficult for the very fact that Arabs and Jews inhabited the same region: THE MIDDLE EAST.
The ulterior motive of the Christian being that, if Arabs in the Bible are overlooked, it will diminish the prospects of biblical prophecies foretelling Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).
As I intend to show, the Arabs formed an important component in the trade and commerce, wars, and so on of the region as did the Jews in those very same events and the normal everyday life. Much of what is stated here is based solely on the Bible..
In the Beginning
The book of Genesis gives the earliest accounts of the Arabs. Many know the story of Isaac and Ishmael. But it is important that we restate them again...
Abraham had a son Ishmael via his Hagar, his wife. As the Bible states
"...gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife"
Genisis 16:3
Not his mistress or concubine,
his wife as it clearly states. Hagar, a humble Egyptian maid was to give birth to Ishmael. The progenitor of the Arabs, the Bible goes onto say that Ishmaels descendants would form a great nation. And they would dwell among their brethren (the Jews). Hagar was to take for her son, a wife out of Egypt. Ishmael gave birth to twelve sons. One of them being Kedar
(Genesis 25:13) , in which the Prophet muhammed's (PBUH) lineage was to come through.
Kedar: "...A tribe descended from Ishmael (Gen.25.13)... The people were Pliny's Cedrai, and from their tribe Mohammed ultimately arose."
Davis Dictionary of the Bible, 1980 (Sponsored by the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church)
Kedar:"...Of the Ishmaelite tribes, Kedar must have been one of the most important, and thus in later times the name came to be applied to all the wild tribes of the desert. It is through Kedar (Arab, Keidar) that Muslim genealogists trace the descent of Mohammed from Ishmael."
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Kedar: (black): Second son of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13)... Mohammed traces his lineage to Abraham through the celebrated Koreish tribe, which sprang from Kedar. The Arabs in the Hejaz are called Beni Harb (men of war), and are Ishmaelites as of old, from their beginning.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The Arabs would inhabit the Arabian peninsula, (the wilderness of Paran,
Genesis 21:21 Faran in Arabic).
Not only are their origins of the same source, but the Arabs and Jews throughout the course of time would share a history together in the biblical and even post-Biblical era.
http://www.jamaat.net/comp/arabsinthebible.html