History doesn't show that the Arabs were descended from Ishmael or that he even existed. As far as I can tell (although I haven't looked all that much) it also doesn't show that anyone considered the 'Arabs' to be Ishmaelites much before the 1st C.
I was looking for some evidence about when the Arabs in general started to be associated with the Ishmaelites, so I'm willing to reconsider this if you can find any evidence earlier than Josephus. The tradition doesn't seem to be particularly ancient though.
We have seen that there is no historical basis to the tradition of associating the Ishmaelites with the Arabs, which is founded merely on the ethnological midrash in Gen. 25. But since it existed in the Bible, the idea of such an association became established in Jewish tradition and, consequently, among those non-Jewish circles which in some way drew upon Jewish traditions.
"ISHMAEL" AND "ARAB(S)":
A TRANSFORMATION OF ETHNOLOGICAL TERMS
Journal of Near Eastern Studies vol 35 no 4
In a book called
The Land of Israel as a Political Concept in Hasmonean Literature: Recourse by Doron Mendels on pages 145-148
Your quote is cited as follows:
4 Wrongly, of course; cf. Eph’al’s conclusion about the identification: “We have seen that there is no historical basis to the tradition of associating the Ishmaclites with the Arabs, which is founded merely on the ethnological midrash in Gen 25. But since it existed in the Bible, the idea of such an association became established in Jewish tradition and, consequently, among these non-Jewish circles which in some way drew upon Jewish traditions.”
The author decides to address the History of the Arabs of the 2nd Century B.C.
In recent years two almost complementary works on the Arabs of ancient times have appeared. One, by
I. Eph'al, reaches the year 450 B.C.; the other, by G.W. Bowersock goes on to Roman times’.
Whereas Bowersock surveys the history of the Arabs from circa 300 B.C. to the first century B.C. in the second chapter of his book, I. Eph’al ingeniously elaborates upon the problem of the identification
between Arabs and Ishmaelites in the literature of the ancient Near East from Assyrian times to josephus, in an article which appeared in 1976 (2). However, neither author discussed the Arabs and lshmaelites
in the so-called intertestamental literature; in this appendix I hope to fill in this gap concerning the second century B.C.
I should first like to emphasize that ‘Arabs’ is a term used by the sources in Hellenistic times to denote a great variety of tribes:
Nabateans, Itureans, Amreans, etc.3; these were identified by Jewish as well as by non-Jewish sources as ‘Ishmaelites’4. We shall see that this particular identification also exists in the Jewish literature of the Hasmonean period. As already mentioned, this literature was composed during the Hasmonean wars. During the first decades of these wars the Jews had a common cause with most of the Arab tribes around them, namely in the struggle against the Seleucids. However, towards the end of the century, when Aristobulus I and Alexander Jannaeus expanded towards ‘Arab’ territories, such as the upper Galilee, and the Golan and TransJordan, we hear of increasing clashes between the Jews and the Nabateans, called ‘Arabs’ by the ancient sources5. These military confrontations seem to have become very fierce in the nineties of the first century B.C.6 The different perceptions of the Arabs resulting from this development, can, I believe, be seen in the literature of the time.
During the sixties of the second century B.C., we hear from contemporary sources that good relations existed between certain Arab tribes and the Jews, but that with others relations were hostile (IMacc 9:35—42); at a certain stage we even hear of a war between Judas Maccabeus and the Arabs, which ended in a peace treaty concluded only with reluctance (2Macc 12: 10ff). This state of affairs is reflected in three compositions written in the sixties. On the one hand, a writer like Eupolemus who expresses the views of Judas’s circles, thinks in terms of getting back to the territorial dimension of David’s times. However, he includes the Itureans, Nabateans and Nabdeans (all Arab tribes according to Gen 25:131)8 among David’s conquests: this, of course, is unbiblical. This description of David’s conquests should be viewed as wishful thinking on Eupolemus’ behalf, combined with David’s actual conquests and some contemporary concepts9. Moreover, according to Eupolemus it was David who built “ships in Elana (Eilat), a city of Arabia ...“. Whereas Eupolemus depicts David as the king who subdued the Nabateans and Nabdeans, by Solomon’s reign Eupolemus makes these peoples disappear, and instead, the region ‘Arabia’ becomes a part of the Jewish kingdom equal to Samaria, Galilee, etc. ‘Arabia’ even sends meat supplies to the builders of the Jerusalem Temple.
Alongside this view of the subjugation of the Arabs, we find already during the sixties of the second century BC. the growing idea of disengagement from them. Daniel 11:41 (written in the sixties) omits them altogether when mentioning the foes of the Jews circa 170. Even more remarkable is another piece composed in the sixties:
lEnoch 85—90. There the Arab (Ishmael) is depicted as a “wild a ss” (based on Gen 16:12)10; however, among the many animals who devour the people of Israel, the Arabs (wild asses) are not mentioned. On the contrary, when Moses escapes to Midian he goes directly to the “wild asses” who rescue him, just as they rescue Joseph in another document of the period (1 Enoch 89:16). This identification of Midian with the Arabs contrasts with the Bible where Midian is not an Ishmaelite but a descendant of Keturah (Gen 25:1—2).
Unfortunately we do not possess any literary evidence concerning the Arabs until John Hyrcanus ¡‘s reign, except perhaps Judith 2: 23—25. Judith was written in Palestine during the Persian era, but became popular, and was possibly re-edited, during the forties and thirties of the second century B.C.” Judith 2:23—25 explicitly identifies the Arabs with Ishmael saying: “And he (Holophernes) took his whole army, his infantry and cavalry and chariots, and moved into the mountainous country and ravaged Put and Lud and plundered all the sons of Rassis and the sons of Ishmael who lived along the desert, to the south of the country of Cheleon ...“ Although this war may be taken from Babylonian history’2, it may reflect views about the Arabs prevalent in the thirties of the second century B.C.
From John Hyrcanusl’s reign evidence abounds: Jubilees, composed circa 125 B.C., and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs from around 108/7 B.C.’3 In Jubilees, which is a midrash on Genesis through Exodus 12, we find an intriguing attitude to Ishmael and the Arabs. In 20:12—13, referring to Ishmael’s departure from Abraham (based on Gen 25), it is said, in contradistinction to the Bible: “And Ishmael and his sons and the sons of Keturah and their sons went together and they dwelt from Paran to the entrance to Babylon in all
the land which faces the east opposite the desert. And these mixed with each other, and they are called Arabs or Ishmaelites.” Through out Jubilees it is emphasized that the Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael, which makes them close relatives of the Jews. The actual present relations between Jews and Arabs are legitimized because of the common past of both ‘nations’.
The Land of Israel as a Political Concept in Hasmonean Literature
We also read on
What does the Bible say about Muslims/Islam? | Bibleinfo.com
Although the Bible doesn't specifically say when Islam began, let's explore the following. The descendants of Ishmael and the other sons of Abraham through Keturah were given the eastern country and are referred to as the children or people of the east. They are the progenitors of the Arabs. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, traces the starting of his lineage back to Ishmael through his first born son, Nebaioth. It's in the Bible, the Torah, Genesis 25:6,12-18, RSV. “But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country." "These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the first-born of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. (These are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.) They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people.” The areas noted here in verse 18 are located in
Central and Northern Arabia.
