Hagar: Bible
Hagar is Sarah’s Egyptian slave woman whom Sarah gives to Abraham as secondary wife and who would bear a child for him. This practice of surrogacy can be found in a number of ancient Near Eastern texts. After Hagar becomes pregnant, Sarah treats her harshly, and eventually Hagar flees from her mistress into the wilderness where God’s messenger speaks to her. She is the only character in the Bible who gives God a name based on her experience with the Divine. Although the Qur’an does not tell Hagar’s story, a collection of the words of the prophet Muhammed extol Hagar (Hajar). Hagar has long represented the plight of the foreigner, the slave, and the sexually abused woman.
The Slave as Surrogate
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Hagar’s Encounter With God
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Hagar in the Qur’an
The Qur’an does not tell the story of Hagar, but the Hadith (collections of the words of the Prophet Muhammed) give her the name Hajar, which may mean “splendid” or “nourishing.” In this version of the narrative, Sarai is explicitly jealous of Hajar and Ibrahim (Abraham) and accompanies Hajar into the wilderness.
Hagar has long represented the plight of a foreigner, a slave, and a sexually abused woman. She has been the focal point for oppressed peoples. Her story resonates with sexual abuse survivors, the poor and vulnerable, and in the past half century with African American women. While race is not a meaningful term for the biblical period, Hagar’s identity as an Egyptian woman has led some interpreters to see Hagar as African and dark-skinned. Some readers see in the relationship between Sarai and Hagar the story of the white female oppressor and the black slave woman.
Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. “Patriarchal Family Relationships and Near Eastern Law.” Biblical Archaeologist 44 (1981): 209–214.
Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. Rereading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories. New York: Schocken, 2002.
Gafney, Wilda C. Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Louisville: Westminister John Knox: 2017.
Gossai, Hemchand. Power and Marginality in the Abraham Narrative. Lanham, MD: University Press of America: 1995.
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