Encyclopedia of Islam

Hagar

 

(Arabic: Hajar)

 

biblical maidservant 

of Abraham and mother of his son Ishmael, whom 

Muslims include in the ancestry of the Arab peoples 

and the prophet Muhammad

Islamic understandings of Hagar are based on 

two stories found in the book of Genesis, the 

first book of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. 

According to the first of these stories, Hagar was 

the Egyptian servant girl whom Sarah, the wife 

of  a

braham

, gave to her husband to bear his 

child because she herself was barren. After Hagar 

became pregnant, Sarah exiled her to the desert, 

K  280  

Hagar

---

where she encountered an 

angel

 who told her to 

return to Abraham’s household to give birth to 

their son Ishmael (Gen. 16:1–16). The second 

story takes place after Sarah gave birth to her 

own child, Isaac, and expelled Hagar and Ishmael 

into the desert once again because Sarah did not 

want Ishmael to share Abraham’s inheritance 

with her son. When Hagar and Ishmael ran out 

of food and water, the angel of God provided 

them a well of water and promised to make the 

descendants of Ishmael “a great nation” (Gen. 21: 

8–21). Modern scholars think that these stories 

were an attempt by Hebrew authors living in the 

10th century 

b

.

c

.

e

. to explain the origins of the 

b

edoUin

 nomads of Syria-Palestine. These stories 

were later commented and expanded upon by 

Jewish rabbis.

Islamic narratives about Hagar were included 

in  q

Uran

 commentaries (but not in the Quran 

itself), “tales of the prophets” literature (Qisas al-

anbiya), and early histories of m

ecca

. These sto-

ries were transposed to the Arab-Islamicate milieu 

from rabbinic Judaism between the eighth and 

11th centuries 

c

.

e

. Reflecting this new context, 

Hagar, for example, was called both an Egyptian 

and a Copt (an Egyptian Christian). The wilder-

ness where Hagar and Ishmael were exiled was 

identified with the ancient site of Mecca in Arabia 

and the angel of God with g

abriel

, the angelic 

messenger to Muslim prophets. According to 

Islamic accounts, Hagar, in her search for water, 

ran between Safa and Marwa, two hills adjacent 

to the future site of the k

aaba

 in Mecca, before 

Gabriel provided her and her son with water 

from the spring of z

amzam

. Hagar’s search was 

memorialized in the seven runnings performed by 

pilgrims to Mecca between Safa and Marwa dur-

ing the Greater and Lesser Pilgrimages (the 

haJJ

and the 

umra

). In a similar manner, the location 

of the sacrifice of Abraham was transferred to the 

Mecca territory, and in one Islamic version of the 

story, s

atan

 attempted to recruit Hagar to dissuade 

Abraham from sacrificing his son. She steadfastly 

refused. Both Hagar and Ishmael reportedly died 

in Mecca and were buried next to the Kaaba in a 

place called the Hijr, which remains part of the 

Sacred Mosque precinct today.

Both Hagar and Ishmael were included in the 

genealogies of the Arab peoples and the prophet 

Muhammad, thus making them part of the Abra-

hamic heritage. Muhammad was once reported to 

have said to one of his companions, “When you 

conquer e

gypt

, be kind to its people, for they have 

the covenant of protection and are your kinfolk.” 

This was because Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, 

was an Egyptian.

See also a

rabic

 

langUage

 

and

 

literatUre

; 

chil

-

dren

; c

opts

 

and

 

the

 c

optic

 c

hUrch

.