Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

ISHMIA EL.

i69

the tribes, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham the Friend [of God]
-upon them be peace!-made his entry1; and if perchance one of the
kings who believe in God shall undertake to restore the gates, then
their stones shall be found safe and in their places.' So the men went
away and did not displace a single stone.
Ishmael.
~ It was Otis2, the son of Khartaba, who gave to Sarah, the
wife of Abraham the Friend [of God], her handmaid Hagar, in the
thirty-fifth year of the life of Abraham; or, according to another
copy, in the eighty-fifth; and the latter is the true date. By Hagar,
Abraham became the father of Ishmael, who was called his son by Fol. 57 b
Hagar; and the Arabs call Ishmael their ancestor, because he took
a wife from among them; and they are called Ishmaelites, because
Ishmael was their father, and because Ishmael grew up among the
Arabs and spoke the Arabic language. Ishmael lived one hundred
and thirty-nine years. He had, by his Arab wives, twelve sons4, who
1 The allusion is, although somewhat incorrectly made, to the Koran, Szrah
Iilsuf, ver. 67, where Jacob says to his sons when they are about to journey
to Egypt:
S.L 901 0 \9) 0 - - ' 't -
'My sons, do not enter by a single gate, but enter by different gates.' Cf.
Al-Makrizi, Khzitat, i. p. r r. Cf. the Midrash Rabbah on Gen., Par. 91 (quoted
by Geiger, Was hat iMohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen? p. I48):
nnr nnrn ~53 i D:n 5s Ipo nS5 nds
'Jacob said to them: Do not all of you assemble at one gate.'
2 We have here another of our author's digressions. Utts is the ancient king
of Egypt who is named Aftftis on fol. 22 b; see note there.
3 The Hebrew text and the LXX have 137 years.
4 See Gen. xxv. 13-15. The Arab writers naturally give somewhat corrupt
forms of their names; see e. g. Ibn Ishalk quoted by Ibn Hisham, Sfrah MuIhanirmad,
p[. 7.

z

[II. 7.]