Philip the Arab and Christianity that appear—save for one reference to Ishmael—figure in the political history of the first three centuries of the Christian era. To Eusebius, the Saracens of the 4th century are direct-line descendants of the biblical Ishmaelites, descendants of the handmaid, Hagar, and the patriarch, Abraham. They are thus outcasts, beyond God's Covenant with the favored son of Abraham, Isaac. The twin images of the Ishmaelite and the Saracen—outcasts and "latrones", raiders of the frontiers—reinforce each other and give Eusebius' portrait of the Arab nation an unhappy color. He may have been reluctant to associate the first Christian emperor with a people
Ishmael in Islam in the Quran is that directly after the sacrifice narrative, Abraham is told of the coming of Isaac's birth, therefore, it must be Ishmael who was about to be sacrificed. However Tabari argues that because it is only Isaac who is indicated by birth announcements that the announcement at the start of the sacrifice narrative, ""So We gave him good tidings of a forbearing boy"" refers to Isaac. Authentic hadiths are said to not contradict each other because that negates the definition of the hadith. At some point, often believed to be after Hagar's death, Ishmael marries a woman from