Some Abrahamic scholars described the historic tribe of Nabataeans as descendants of Nebaioth based on the similarity of sounds, but others reject this connection.

Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions refer to the Ishmaelites as Sumu'ilu, a tribal confederation that would take control of the incense trade route during the dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to the north.

I have made some of my offspring to dwell in an uncultivatable valley by Your Sacred House (the Kaaba in Mecca) in order, O our Lord, that they may perform As-Ṣalāt.

[a] Josephus also lists the sons and states that they "inhabit the lands which are between Euphrates and the Red Sea, the name of which country is Nabathæa".

[14] The Targum Onkelos annotates Genesis 25:16, describing the extent of their settlements: "And they dwelt from Hindekaia [India] unto Chalutsa, which is by the side of Mizraim [Egypt], from thy going up towards Arthur [Assyria].

"[15] The 14th century Kebra Nagast says "And therefore the children of Ishmael became kings over Tereb, and over Kebet, and over Nôbâ, and Sôba, and Kuergue, and Kîfî, and Mâkâ, and Môrnâ, and Fînḳânâ, and 'Arsîbânâ, and Lîbâ, and Mase'a, for they were the seed of Shem.

[17][18][19][20] The names "Nabat, Kedar, Abdeel, Dumah, Massa, and Teman" were mentioned in the Assyrian royal inscriptions as Arabian tribes.

The Qedar Tribe's political center was Duma (Dumat Al-Jandal), which was also the cultic residence of the six deities of the "king of the Arabs", as John Travis Noble writes.

[4][2] However, the individual tribes and members kept going on, as there are references from the time Cyrus the Great came to power of the kings living in tents.

Southern Palestine and the surrounding areas were inhabited considerably by Nabataeans, who had been entrenched there as early as the 6th century BC.

"[24] Hisham ibn al-Kalbi (737–819 AD) established a genealogical link between Ishmael and Muhammad using writings and the ancient oral traditions of the Arabs.

[26][27][d] According to author and scholar Irfan Shahîd, while Western scholars viewed this kind of "genealogical Ishmaelism" with suspicion, the concept can be supported for certain groups among the Arabs, Genealogical Ishmaelism was viewed with suspicion as a late Islamic fabrication because of the confusion in Islamic times which made it such a capacious term as to include the inhabitants of the south as well as the north of the Arabian Peninsula.

But short of this extravagance, the concept is much more modest in its denotation, and in the sober sources, it applies only to certain groups among the Arabs of pre-Islamic times.

"[29] In accounts tracing the ancestry of Muhammad back to Ma'ad (and from there to Adam), Arab scholars alternate, with some citing the line as through Nebaioth, others Qedar.

[30] Many Muslim scholars see Isaiah 42 (21:13–17) as predicting the coming of a servant of God who is associated with Qedar and interpret this as a reference to Muhammad.