Ishmael was the son of Abraham the grand patriarch of the Quraish. (In Hebrew Ishmael or Ismail mean God heard). On the whole the name Ishmael / Ismail denotes that the God heard the prayer of his father for a son and granted it.
When Hagar and Ishmael were living near the well of ZamZam the Jurhumites came on that way from Yemen after the bursting of the dam of Marib. Noticing from a distance some birds hovering above a certain spot and suspecting it to be a water place they sent some of their men there to find it out. When they returned with gladsome news the Jurhumites came there. Making some arrangement with Hagar and Ishmael, the owner of that well that they should supply them water while they would in return supply them with milk from their herds, they settled there.
Ishmael grew and married one of their daughters of the Jurhumites and had a dozen’s sons. At that time the Holy Kaabah already been build. After his death at the age of 130 years his first son Nabit was in charge of the holy Kaabah. Afterwards his maternal grandfather’ Mudad bin Amr Al-Jurhumi become the custodian of it. Later on, the Jurhumites behaved high handedly by treating the pilgrims very badly, misappropriating the gifts proferred to the Kaabah and making prohibited thing lawful in its sacred precincts. At this Bani Bakr ibn Abdu Manaf bin kinannah and Ghubshan bin Khuzaah were enrage. They waged war with the Jurhumites and drove them out. When the Jurhumites lost the war, before vacated the city they buried the valuables of the Kaabah in the well of ZamZam hopping to make a comeback one day and ruled Makkah. The exact location of the well was lost and forgotten for a very long time.
End of part 2
Coming up next The Well part 3
