Both Muslims and Jews claimed Ibrahim as their ancestor: one of his sons, Ismail (Ishmael), was said to be the founding ancestor of Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh; and the other son, Ishaq (Isaac), was the ancestor of the Israelites. Ibrahim, says the Quran, was a hanif, a believer who did not identify himself as a member of a religious community, only as a fervent monotheist: “Abraham was not Jewish or Christian, but he was a committed devotee, and not a polytheistic one.” The Quran says that Ibrahim and his son Ismail built the Kaaba in Mecca.
