the descendants of Ishmael: called also Ishmaelites and Saracens, or Arabians, from their country. Their name, Saracens, is not derived, as some have thought, from Sarah, Abraham's wife, but from the Hebrew sarak, which signifies "to rob" or "to steal;" because they mostly carry on the trade of thieving: or from Sahara, the desert; Saracens, inhabitants of the desert. But some writers think Hagarene imports south, conformably to the Arabic; hence Hagar, that is, the southern woman; and Mount Sinai is called Hagar, that is, the southern mountain, Galatians 4:25 . But there seems also to have been a particular tribe who bore this name more exclusively, as the Hagarenes are sometimes mentioned in Scripture distinct from the Ishmaelites, Psalms 83:6; 1 Chronicles 5:19 .