Hagar and Ishmael by the English painter Frederick Goodall (1822-1904). Here the mother is still strong, totally concentrated on the long march in the desert. Ishmael is also carrying the vital water but above all he’s depending on his mother. She’s marching on.
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The Haggar theme is very interesting from a woman point of view. Ishmael appears to be a love child of the servant Haggar and in the Muslim world he is the one who was being sacrificed by Abraham. Islam does not accept the child heir as Isaac who is the first born and rightfully poses as the sacrificial victim. The reason, apart from the Jewish connection, is that both Abraham and Isaac, his son, put their wives in royal harems making them out to be their sisters which is strange indeed. This is quite clear in the bible. Islam therefore is a little dubious about any issue like Isaac from Sarah and in this respect they claim descent from Abraham through Ishmael. What they are saying in fact is that Ishmael is the rightful heir and born of love and that the children of Sarah Abrham´s wife could have be sired by other people and not his.
ReplyDeleteMichael Mifsud