Ishmael
Abraham's banished son
Ishmael is a biblical name—Abraham's firstborn son, cast out with his mother Hagar into the wilderness.
In literary use, an Ishmael is an outcast or wanderer, someone rejected by society or estranged from their community.
The name gained literary fame as the narrator of Melville's *Moby-Dick*: Call me Ishmael.
In Arabic tradition, Ishmael (Ismail) is revered as an ancestor of the Arab peoples and a prophet.
First Hebrew patriarch
- HagarSarah's Egyptian servant
- GenesisFirst biblical book
- firstbornFirst child born
- exileBanishment from homeland
wilderness · prophecy · angel · Beersheba · patriarch · ancestor · lineage · blessing
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
- enduranceSustained effort capacity
- resilienceCapacity to recover quickly
- desertTo leave behind completely
- wanderingTraveling with no fixed course
sustenance · well · divine protection · resourcefulness · perseverance · adaptation · hardship · exile
Banishment from homeland
- wandererRootless, roving person
- displacedShifted from proper location
- rejectedRefused or turned away
- banishedForced to leave permanently
alienated · pariah · ostracized · marginalized · castaway · disinherited · fugitive · outsider
Abraham
First Hebrew patriarch
exile · wilderness · prophecy · angel · Beersheba · patriarch · ancestor · lineage · blessing · birthright
wilderness
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
- enduranceSustained effort capacity
- resilienceCapacity to recover quickly
- desertTo leave behind completely
wandering · sustenance · well · divine protection · resourcefulness · perseverance · adaptation · hardship · exile · provision
exile
Banishment from homeland
banished · alienated · pariah · ostracized · marginalized · castaway · disinherited · fugitive · outsider · homeless
narrator
One who tells events
Queequeg · Ahab · Melville · survivor · coffin · witness · schoolteacher · Nantucket · voyage · obsession
Ibrahim
Arabic form of Abraham
Hajj · pilgrimage · Quran · prophet · Arab · ancestor · Islam · submission · desert · well
- Melville CharactersAhab, Queequeg, Starbuck, Moby Dick, Billy Budd
- Bible PeopleAbraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David
- Biblical MenAdam, Abraham, Moses, David, Joseph
- Biblical FiguresJesus, Adam, Eve, Moses, Noah
- Legendary VoyagersOdysseus, Ulysses, Jason, Sinbad, Aeneas
- literary charactersSherlock Holmes, Scout Finch, Elizabeth Bennet, Macbeth, Huck Finn
IshmaelIsaac
Hebrew patriarch name
Jacob · Israel · legitimate heir · Joseph · Abel
Ishmaelinsider
One with confidential access
heir apparent · belonging · native son · included · golden child
- call me IshmaelNarrator introduces himself casually