Ishmael is the first child of Abraham in Abrahamic religions.
Ishmael may also refer to:
People:
- Ishmael son of Nataniah, the murderer of Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar II's provincial governor
- Ishmael (Book of Mormon), a figure in the Book of Mormon
- Ishmael ben Elisha, more commonly "Rabbi Ishmael", 2nd century rabbi
- Ishmael ben Jose, 3rd-century rabbi, the son of Jose ben Halafta
- Ishmael Beah (born 1980), author and former Sierra Leonean child soldier
- Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation since 1995
- Ishmael Reed (born 1938), American poet, essayist and novelist
- Ishmael (Ian Smale) (born 1950), Christian singer from the UK, specialising in children's music
Fictional characters:
- Ishmael (Moby-Dick), the protagonist in the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- Ishmael, a "mad" character with apparent mystical powers in Ingmar Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander
- Ishmael (A Series of Unfortunate Events), the island facilitator in the children's novel The End
- Ishmael, the wizard who imprisoned the goblins in Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville
Literature:
- Ishmael (novel), a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn
- Ishmael (Star Trek), a Star Trek novel by Barbara Hambly
- Ishmael (poem), an epic poem by Peter Straub
Places:
- Ismael, Sar-e Pol, a village in Afghanistan