He was also the son of Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid. In the book of Genesis, Hagar was sent away with the young Ishmael, and almost died from lack of water, when it was revealed to her by an angel.
It’s got lots of levels of meaning that could be built up.
In the Islamic story, it was Ishmael who was set to be offered up, but God wouldn’t let the knife cut him.
Ishmael is rejected. Or, Ishmael is the true favored son. (counting on your POV)
Ishmael in Moby Dick is the last survivor.
There is also a sect of Shia Islam that are called the Ismailis, because of a dispute about the succession of who should be Imam. Ismail was the son of the 6th Imam, who died before his father (or was sent into hiding and declared dead to protect him). I read something about the Assassin sect during the crusades being Ismailis. The Druzes trace back to this as well from what I understand.
There was Ismail Pasha, involved with the Suez Canal and the moving Egypt into modernization in the 1800s.
There was the Shah Ismail, around 1500 in Iran.
A couple of interesting Wiki disambiguation pages
For Ishmael:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_%28disambiguation%29
For Ismail
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_%28name%29
No No NO...you guys have it all wrong about the “Ismail Ax” thing...he actually wrote “1 small Ax” as a reminder to buy an axe for the killings, but apparently he couldn’t find one in time, so he just used the guns. ;-)
Seriously, though...did you guys read his scripts over at Smoking Gun? I think this guy was molested as a child. It would explain a lot.
Thoughts???