Ishmael (Hebrew: יִשְׁמָעֵאל, Modern Yishma'el Tiberian Yišmāʻēl ISO 259-3 Yišmaˁel; Greek: Ισμαήλ Ismaēl; Latin: Ismael; Arabic: إسماعيل‎ ʾIsmāʿīl) is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first son according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar (Genesis 16:3). According to the Genesis account, he died at the age of 137 (Genesis 25:17).

Cognates of Hebrew Yishma'el existed in various ancient Semitic cultures, including early Babylonian and Minæan. It is translated literally as "God has hearkened", suggesting that "a child so named was regarded as the fulfillment of a divine promise".

This is the account of Ishmael from Genesis Chapters 16, 17, 21, 25

In Genesis 16, the birth of Ishmael was planned by the Patriarch Abraham’s first wife, who at that time was known as Sarai. She and her husband Abram (Abraham), sought a way to have children in order to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant that was established in Genesis 15. Since Sarai had yet to bear Abram a child, her idea was to offer her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar to Abram, so that they could have a child by her. Abram consented to a marital arrangement taking Hagar as his second wife when he was in his late 85th year of age. Customs of that time dictated that, although Hagar was the birth mother, any child conceived would belong to Sarai and Abram (Sarah and Abraham).

Daniel Quinn (born 11 October 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American writer described as an environmentalist and best known for his novel Ishmael (published in 1992), which won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991. Quinn does not, however, identify himself as an "environmentalist" and points out that the term creates a false dichotomy, evoking the notion of the environment as being distinct from living organisms, specifically human life. He has described his own philosophy as new tribalism.

Daniel Quinn was born in Omaha, Nebraska, where he graduated from Creighton Preparatory School. He went on to study at Saint Louis University, at University of Vienna, Austria, through IES Abroad, and at Loyola University, receiving a bachelor's degree in English, cum laude, in 1957. He delayed part of this university education, however, by briefly becoming a postulant of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Bardstown, Kentucky. Although hoping to become a Trappist monk, his spiritual director, Thomas Merton, decided it best to end Quinn's postulancy. Quinn then went into publishing, abandoned his Catholic faith, and went through two unsuccessful marriages.

Nicolas Jaar is an American-Chilean musician. He is currently studying comparative literature at Brown University, Rhode Island. Jaar is also the owner and founder of his own record label and art house Clown & Sunset.

Jaar was born in New York on January 10, 1990 to Alfredo Jaar and Evelyne Maynard and moved to his father’s native Chile when he was two. He and his family lived there for six years before moving back to New York. Jaar met Soul Keita and Nikita Quasim on a school trip through the Sonora desert in Mexico. The three bonded over music and began swapping beats and projects online. In 2009, Jaar started Clown & Sunset as a way to legitimize their music.

Jaar’s music is ruminative and emotional (he calls it “blue-wave”), drawing inspiration from fellow-Chilean Ricardo Villalobos and minimal techno. Most of Jaar’s compositions reside at 100 BPM or lower, far lower than the techno/house standards of 120-130 BPM. “I’m going to keep taking the beats even slower,” he says in an interview with Resident Advisor, “More unintentional things happen between the beats.” He released his debut album, Space Is Only Noise in January 2011 to critical acclaim, receiving a score of 8.4 “Best New Music” from Pitchfork and four stars from The Guardian. It was ranked #1 album of the year by Resident Advisor, Mixmag, Crack Mag, #2 by DJ Mag and #20 by Pitchfork. His track "Don't Break My Love" also received Best New Music by Pitchfork in late 2011. Jaar toured the album with a full band, combining sounds from his laptop with a guitarist, drummer, and saxophonist.

Abdullah Ibrahim (Arabic: عبدالله إبراهيم), born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer. His music reflects many of the musical influences of his childhood in the multicultural port areas of Cape Town, ranging from traditional African songs to the gospel of the AME Church and ragas, to more modern jazz and other Western styles. Ibrahim is considered the leading figure in the sub-genre, Cape Jazz. Within jazz, his music particularly reflects the influence of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. With his wife, the jazz singer Sathima Bea Benjamin, he is father to the New York underground rapper Jean Grae, as well as to a son, Tsakwe.

He first received piano lessons at the age of seven, was an avid consumer of jazz records brought by American sailors, and was playing jazz professionally by 1949. In 1959 and 1960, he played alongside Kippie Moeketsi and Hugh Masekela with The Jazz Epistles in Sophiatown; the group recorded the first jazz LP by Black South African musicians in 1960. Ibrahim then joined the European tour of the musical King Kong.

Ishmael Beah (born on November 23, 1980)) is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

In 1991 a vicious civil war overtook Sierra Leone, the country in which he was living. The rebels invaded Beah's hometown, Mogbwemo, located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, and he was forced to flee. Separated from his family, he spent months wandering south with a group of other boys. At the age of 13, he was forced to become a child soldier. According to Beah's account, he fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF. Beah fought for the government army against the rebels. In 1997, he fled Freetown by the help of the UNICEF due to the increasing violence and found his way to New York City, where he lived with Laura Simms, his foster mother. In New York City, Beah attended the United Nations International School. After high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Political Science.