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 tribe of Jurhum. Ishmael's line is then traced from his son Kedar, then down through to Adnan, then to the Musta'riba, to the Quraysh. In this manner, Muhammad's ancestry leads back to Ishmael, joining "original biblical ancestry of Abraham with a distinctively Arab afinal stock," and connecting Muhammad with Mecca and the Kaaba. Ishmael in Islam Ishmael (, ) is the figure known in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as Abraham's (Ibrahim) son, born to Hagar (Hajar). In Islam, Ishmael is regarded as a prophet ("nabi") and an ancestor to Muhammad. He also became associated with Mecca and the construction of