From the Hebrew name יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishmaʿel) meaning "God will hear", from the roots שָׁמַע (shamaʿ) meaning "to hear" and אֵל (ʾel) meaning "God". In the Old Testament this is the name of a son of Abraham. He is the traditional ancestor of the Arab people. Also in the Old Testament, it is borne by a man who assassinates Gedaliah the governor of Judah. The author Herman Melville later used this name for the narrator in his novel Moby-Dick (1851).