Sarah’s Maidservant, Mother of Ishmael
The Hebrew Bible records that Hagar was Sarah’s Egyptian maidservant, given to Abraham as a concubine because Sarah was barren, and bore his firstborn Ishmael. After Sarah bore Isaac, fearing Ishmael would diminish the inheritance, she demanded Hagar and her son be driven into the wilderness; as the two neared death from thirst, a messenger of God appeared and guided them to water, promising that Ishmael’s descendants too would become a great nation. Islamic tradition honors Hagar and Ishmael as important ancestors in the history of the holy site of Mecca, and the "running" rite of the Meccan pilgrimage commemorates Hagar’s going back and forth in the wilderness in search of water.
Driven with Ishmael into the wilderness of Beersheba, when the water was gone Hagar laid the child under a bush and drew away, unable to watch him die, and wept aloud. A messenger of God heard the child’s cry, opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and mother and son were saved — Islamic tradition holds this spring to be the Zamzam of present-day Mecca.
Islamic tradition holds the spring Hagar found in the wilderness to be the Zamzam of present-day Mecca, and the "running" rite of the Meccan pilgrimage commemorates her going back and forth in search of water — a traditional detail not in the Hebrew Bible text, an independent Islamic development and interpretation of this shared narrative.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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