(This was originally posted as a reply to https://forums.joeuser.com/317336.)

I consider the Biblical account of Abraham as extremely important and, in fact, as the most important part of the Bible that is not specifically by law defined as such.

Abraham's life story is the first story in the Bible that I understand as a literal description of events, if shrouded in mystery a bit. There really was a man called "Abraham" who had a wife Sarah and both were Aramaeans. And that man really did have a servant concubine named Hagar who was Egyptian. And he had two sons Ishmael and Isaac and they are the ancestors of arabised Arabs (i.e. Ishmaelis who migrated from Canaan to Arabia) and Jews.

The names of these people are what we cannot confirm, but the description of the ancestry can be confirmed genetically and via legends of other Semitic peoples.

(Incidentally, there is a clan in Somaliland called "Isaaq" with links to the Banu Hashim who are a clan of the Meccan Quraish tribe and Muhammed's family. The Isaaq clan in Somaliland acknowledges its descent from Ishmael and is friendly towards Jews and Israel.)

And at this point I guess we need some etymology and location names:

We differentiate between Canaan, Aram, and Arabia.

"Aram" (Aleph Resh Mem) derives from "ram" ("high", Resh Mem) and means "high land".

"Canaan" (Kaf Nun Ayin Nun) derives from "cana3" ("low", Kaf Nun Ayin) and means "low land".

"Arab" (Ayin Resh Bet) derives from "Erev" ("evening", same spelling) and means "west" or "southwest" (where the sun goes down). (Today in Arabic "maghreb" means "the west". The /gh/ sound is the fricative of an Ayin as would typically follow a vowel.)

"Mitzraim" (Mem Tsadi Resh Yud Mem) derives from "two [whatever a mitzr is]" (it is a dual-only word with no regular plural), i.e. "the two Egyptian kingdoms", upper and lower Egypt. (Today's Arabic word for Egypt is "misr", spelt the same as "mitzr".) Egypt ruled Canaan at the time. "mitzr" is a noun derived from the adjective "tzar". "tzar" means "narrow". "Mitzraim" literally means "the two narrow lands" (i.e. upper and lower Egypt).

All words are (ancient) Aramaic.

Canaan was (is) the low lands, i.e. Israel and Lebanon. Aram was the high lands, i.e. Syria and northern Iraq (with mountains and away from the sea). Arabia is the land southwest of Aram (where the sun goes down as seen from Babylon). The name Canaan has nothing to do with the Biblical character Canaan except that he was named after the location. He is not the ancestor of everyone living in Canaan at any time.

The languages spoken in Canaan (Hebrew and Phoenician) and the languages spoken in Aram (Aramaic) were probably still the same language 4000 years ago, when Abraham lived; definitely very similar. The languages spoken in Arabia (Arabic dialects) were related but already different.

Abraham came from Aram and settled in Canaan. Of Abraham's descendants those that stayed in Canaan then came to speak Hebrew (one of the two Canaite languages) whereas those that moved to Arabia continued to speak the Aramaic of Abraham and later Aramaic as it changed and at some point Arabic, but probably never exclusively. Aramaic was at the time and until 1000 CE _the_ language spoken among traders in the big cities, including Mecca and Medina.

Ishmael's descendants spoke Aramaic and Arabic when they adopted the language of those whom they joined in Arabia. Isaac's descendants spoke Hebrew and later adopted Aramaic when Aramaic became the dominant language. At Jesus' time Jews spoke mainly Aramaic (and Greek).

The Phoenician language died out over 2000 years ago but was always very close to Hebrew (the only differences I ever saw were some /y/ sounds that became vowels (or zero) and many /t/ sounds at the end of female words that became /a/ sounds in Hebrew (and Arabic!) but still appear as /ath/ when another noun follows.

For example the term "new city" is "qeret hadasha" in Hebrew and "qart hadasht" in Phoenician. Spelling is the same except for a Tav at the end of "hadasht" instead of a He at the end of "hadasha(h)". (But if another noun would follow the "hadashah", the "h" would become a "t", like in Phoenician. "Qart hadasht" is whence we derive the word "Carthage" for the city in North-Africa.)

Long story, short end: G-d made Sarah's but not Hagar's son stay in Canaan (and finally Egypt). But He did have plans for both and wanted one to stay in Canaan and one to go to Arabia. (What about Aram? I don't know. Perhaps Aram was too polytheistic and unconvincible at the time.)

The Jews were, according to this story, G-d's chosen people; but only starting with the liberation from Egyptian rule, a process Ishmael's people never had to go through since they were rulers in Arabia, not the ruled.

Why the sons of an Egyptian woman were supposed to go Arabia and the sons of an Aramaic woman were supposed to go to Canaan/Egypt is anybody's guess.

However, Sarah was the first Israelite (in a sense) and the line goes through the mother ever since. (The same is not true for Egyptians and Ishmael and his descendants are not Egyptians.)