Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael is a fictional character in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851). Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember of the "Pequod", is the narrator of the book. His importance relies on his role as narrator; as a character, he is only a minor participant in the action and the main protagonist is Captain Ahab. The Biblical name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts. Because he was the first person narrator, most of the criticism of "Moby-Dick" either confused Ishmael with the author himself or overlooked him. From the mid-twentieth century onward, critics distinguished Ishmael from Melville, establishing the
Qedarite to biblical tradition, are the offspring of the Abraham-Ishmael-Kedar genealogical line. The majority of Sayyid believe they are one of the modern day descendants of Muhammad, and that they are therefore the descendants of Ishmael and his second son Qedar. Abu Ja'far al-Baqir (676–743 CE) wrote that his father Ali ibn Husayn informed him that Mohammed had said: "The first whose tongue spoke in clear Arabic was Ishmael, when he was fourteen years old." Hisham Ibn Muhammad al-Kalbi (737–819 CE) established a genealogical link between Ishmael and Mohammed using writings that drew on biblical and Palmyran sources, and the ancient