ISMAEL
192
ISPAHAN
desire marked by the utmost simplicity, but liis gener-
ous bequests to the monks of Canterbury show that
this was not due to lack of interest in his cathedral
church. In 1363 the archbishop suiTered a paralytic
stroke which he survived for tliree years, although by
depriving him of the power of speech, it practically
closed his career.
LitcrcB Cantuarienses, ed. Sheppard, R. S., II (London, 1SS7- 88); Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. Riley, R. S. (Lon- don, 1863^); Wood, History and Antiquities of Oxford (Ox- ford, 1786); Wharton, .(47i.(7h'a .Sacra (London, 1691); Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, IV (London, 1860-84); MoiSANT, De Specula regis Edwardilll. seu trartatu quern de mala regni administratione conscripsit Simon Islip (Paris, 1891): Tout in Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.
Edwin Burton.
Ismael (Ishmael — Heb. JJXJIDC.'"; Sept. 'Iff/xaiiX; Vulg. Ismahcl, in I Par., i, 28, 29, 31), the son of Abraham and Agar, the Egyptian. Ilis history is contained in parts of Gen., xvi-xxv, wherein three strata of Hebrew tradition (J, E, P) are usually dis- tinguished by contemporary scholars (see ABR.\H.\jr). The name Ismael", which occurs also in early Baljylonian and in Mintean, was given to the child before its birth (Gen., xvi, 11), and means: "may God hear". As Sarai, Abram's wife, was barren, she gave him, in accordance with the custom of the time, her handmaid, Agar, as concubine, in order to obtain children through her. Agar's conception of a child soon led to her flight into the wilderness, where the angel of Yahweh appeared to her, bade her to return to her mistress, and fixed the name and char- acter of her future son. After her return to Bersabee, she brought forth Ismael to Abram, who was then eighty-six years old (xvi). Ismael was very dear to the aged patriarch, as is shown by his entreaty of God in Ismael's behalf, when the Almighty promised him a son through Sara. In answer to this earnest entreaty, God disclosed to Abraham the glorious future which awaited Ismael: "As for Ismael, I have also heard thee. Behold, I will bless him, and increase, and multiply him exceedingly: he shall beget twelve chiefs, and 1 will make him a great nation." Ismael was not the destined heir of the covenant; yet, as he belonged to Abraham's family, he was submitted to the rite of circumcision when the patriarch circum- cised all the male members of his household. He was then a lad of thirteen (xvii). Abraham's tender love towards Ismael manifested itself on another occasion. He resented Sara's complaint to him, when, on the great festival given at the weaning of Isaac, she requested Agar's and Ismael's summary dismissal because she "had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with [or mocking] Isaac her son". Ismael was Abraham's own "son ", and indeed his first-born. At this juncture, God directed Abraham to accede to Sara's request, comforting him with the repeated assurance of future national greatness for Ismael. Whereupon the patriarch dismissed Agar and Ismael with a modicum of provision for their journey. As their scanty provision of water was soon exhausted, Ismael would have certainly perished in the wilder- ness, had not God shown to Agar a well of water which enabled her to revive the dying lad.
According to God's repeated promise of future great- ness for Agar's son, Ismael grew up, lived in the wilder- nessof Paran, became famous as an archer, and married an Egj-ptianwife (xxi, 8-21). He became the father of twelve chiefs, whose names and general quarters are given in Gen., x.xv, 12-16. Only one daughter of Ismael is mentioned in Holy Writ, where she is spoken of asone of Esau's wives (cf. Gen., xxviii, 9; xx.xvi, 3). The last inciilent known of Ismael's career is con- nected with Abraham's burial, in which he appears associated with Isaac (xxv, 9). Ismael died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven, "and was gathered unto his people" (xxv, 17).
In his Epistle to the (ialatians (iv, 21 sqq.) St. Paul
expounds allegorically the narrative of Ismael and
Isaac, urging upon his readers the duty of not
giving up their Christian freedom from the bondage
of the Law. Of course, in so arguing, the Apostle of
the Gentiles did not intend to detract in any way
from the historical character of the narrative in
Genesis. With regard to the various difficulties,
literary and historical, suggested by a close study of
the Bililical account of Ismael's life, suffice it to say
that each antl all will never cause a careful and un-
biased scholar to regard that account otherwise than as
portraying an ancient historical character, will never
induce him to treat otherwise than as hypercritical
every attempt, by whomsoever made, to resolve
Ismael into a conjectural personality of the founder
of a group of Arabic tribes. And this view of the
matter will aiipear most certain to any one who com-
pares the Biblical narrative with the legends con-
cerning Ismael which are embodied in the Talmud,
the Targum, and the other rabbinical works; while
the latter are plainly the result of puerile imagination,
the former is decidedly the description of an ancient
historical figure.
See bibliography to Isaac, to which may be added, Driver in Hastings, Diet, of the Bible, s. v. Ishmael; Seligsohn in The Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v. Ishmael.
Francis E. Gigot.
Ispahan, a Catholic Armenian Latin see. Under the name of Aspandana it was once one of the princi- pal towns of Media. Christianity must have pene- trated into the land at an early period, for in 424 we meet the name of its bishop, Aphraat. Several other bishops of this see are historically known: Abraham in 497, another Abraham in 554, Ahron in 576 (Cha- bot, "Synodicon orientale", Paris, 1902, 674), two others in 987 and 1111 (Lequien, " Oriens Christianus", II, 1305). Ispahan owes its prosperity to a shah of the Softs dynasty. Abbas I, who made it his capital at the end of the sixteenth century; he drew thither from all parts merchants, artists, artisans, agriculturists, embellished the town with many fine buildings, and enlarged it to such an extent that it was about six miles in circumference, had nearly 600,000 inhabi- tants and was looked upon as one of the finest aind richest towns in the world. Djulfa, the Armenian quarter, created by the sliah himself, was, and is still, separated from Ispahan by the Zender Roud river. About 1600 Abbas I, desirous of an alliance with Christian European States in order to destroy the Ottoman power, entered into relations with Clement VIII and the King of Spain, and both promised him missionaries. The first to come were Portuguese Au- gustinians from Goa (1602). In 1604 the pope, who did not know of the arrival of the Augustinians, en- trusted the Persian mission to the Discalced Carmel- ites, of whom a few settled in Ispahan in December, 1607. Then came French Capuchin missionaries in 1628, French Jesuits in 1645, and Dominicans a little later. Although the shahs did not make the Catholic missionaries welcome, they nevertheless al- lowed them in the course of the seventeenth century to continue their ministry to the Armenians and Chaldeans, to erect churches and schools, and even to convert a few Moslems. When the celebrated Jesuit, Father Alexander de Rhodes, died, he was given mag- nificent obsequies. During the entire eighteenth cen- tury persecutions were so serious as to cause the departure of the European missionaries, and even the Catholic natives left the town.
The Latin Diocese of Ispahan was created in 1629; in 1638 a second one was created, known as Babylon, and until 1693 both were under one administrator. The bishop generally resided at Ispahan and was still there in 1699, as well as the five religious communities mentioned above, when the Bishop of Ancyra was sent by the pope as ambassador to the shah. The tak-
