Where is the blessed nation of Ishmael?

In answer to the video "How Islam Shaped Its Sources"

When in the Torah, Ibrahim prayed that Ismail might live "before the Lord", he was asking God that his firstborn and only son at the time be dedicated to His service at the altar. Anyone familiar with that terminology knows that throughout the Hebrew Bible, it applies to dedication to God, besides its use for the offerings made to God. 

Accordingly, Ibrahim settled his only son in a place where he would live "before the Lord" and worship Him 2:127, right besides the altar of sacrifice. Ibrahim prayed God that this Holy Shrine remain a purified sanctuary for the righteous pilgrims 2:125, that this unforgiving location be turned to a hospitable place for those seeking it 2:126,14:37,28:57 that he and his descendants remain free from worshiping idols

14:36"surely they have led many men astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me, and whoever disobeys me, Thou surely art Forgiving, Merciful".

Ibrahim asked that his descendants keep up prayer and be protected until the Day of Resurrection 14:40.

Judeo-Christian apologists often wonder as to the distances involved in Abraham having to travel between Beersheba where he had settled his family through Sarah, and Mecca, where the Muslim tradition states he had settled his family through Hagar. From the beginning as he set himself out of his native area, Ibrahim travelled distances surpassing the Beerseba-Mecca distance, which is an approximate 10 days journey. It was nothing out of the ordinary for frequent travelers, nomads, or traders to undergo 20 or 30 days journeys even in harsh terrains, so why would it be the case for an obedient servant of God whom Judeo-Christian tradition itself admits he was so submissive in his obedience that he set out to sacrifice his son to God. Neither did he hesitate to leave everything behind his native Ur in Chaldea, for a far away and unspecified location, in obedience to God Gen11.

His travels, they happened by foot, donkey's back, and he made many stops along the way, pitching his tent, building worship sites and altars, a practice that continued among his descendants. He used a donkey as he went to prepare the sacrifice of "the only son" Gen22. It is also to be noted that to the ancient, town-dwelling Hebrews the term "wilderness of Beersheba" comprised all the desert regions south of Palestine, including the Hijaz.

When in the Torah, God promises -several times over- to turn Ishmael's progeny into a great nation, and a "great nation” in biblical terminology can never be a nation of idolaters, who among the descendants of Ishmael succeeded in fulfilling this promise? Where is the great nation promised to Ishmael, whose numbers would be as vast as the stars in the sky? Where is that great Ishmaelite nation that rose and then vanished without anyone ever knowing about it? 

The obvious isnt missed by many rabbis in their commentaries of the verse, as they see the rise of Islam as the fulfillment of the promise. And that is one of the most outstanding manner in which one can verify the truthfulness of God's words, despite their successive destructions and scattering that almost took the Bani Israel to the brink of racial extinction, they have nevertheless remained and regenerated because they are linked with God by a covenant and so is the case of Bani Ismail, despite having almost entirely, besides the scattered hanif remnants, plunged into a state of spiritual ignorance (jahiliya) for thousands of years, nevertheless maintained their ancestral identity. 

In Gen15 Abraham's progeny is promised to dwell between the Nile and the Euphrates and in Gen37:25-28 we read of

"Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmailites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt". 

The progeny of Ismail settled in the area from Havilah (beginning from around Yemen all the way to the north of the Arabian Peninsula, among the possible extent of the territory according to Biblical scholars) unto Shur (near gulf of Aqabah at the north east end of Red sea) Gen21:21,25:9-18, which essentially is the Hijaz where the descendants of Ismail have always identified themselves in, whether in ancient history or today. In the early 7th century Syriac Chronica Minora, the author remarks that there is nothing unusual for the Arabs to worship at the  "qubta" of Abraham since they have been doing so since ancient times in homage to their forefather. 

In the words of the Jewish historian Josephus who wrote in the 1st century, after speaking of the Arabians of his time as practicing male circumcision at 13 in commemoration of their forefathers Ismail and Ibrahim

"When the lad was grown up, he married a wife, by birth an Egyptian: from whence the mother was her self derived originally. Of this wife were born to Ishmael twelve sons: Nabaioth, Kedar, Abdeel, Mabsam, Idumas, Masmaos, Massaos, Chodad, Theman, Jetur, Naphesus, Kadmas. These inhabited all the country from Euphrates, to the Red Sea: and called it Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and name their tribes from these: both because of their own virtue, and because of the dignity of Abraham their father".

This Nabatene country extends on a much larger area than the later northern Nabateans. It goes from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Further, it is known that the later northern Nabateans with Petra as their capital originated from further south within the Arabian Peninsula. This makes the Nabateans in fact Arabs and it is only an arbitrary designation that created this distinction. Nabateans and the Hijazi tribes shared the same deities and the script used by early Quran scribes closely resembled that of the Nabateans.

One interesting historical narration is that, per Ibn Kathir, the horns of the ram sacrificed in substitution of Ismail were religiously preserved in the Kaaba and handed down from generation to generation, upto the times of Abdullah bin Zubair. When Hajjaj besieged the Kaaba in 692, and destroyed part of it, the horns too were destroyed (as a quick side note, inscriptions dated to 78AH attesting to the reconstruction and remodelling of the Kaaba have recently been found, thus providing an independent documentary verification of the event). Ibn Abbas and Sheibi both had seen the horns. 

Another narration attests to the pre-islamic Abrahamic connection and how falsehood was mingled with truth 

"When Allah's Messenger came to Mecca, he refused to enter the Ka`ba with idols in it. He ordered (idols to be taken out). So they were taken out. The people took out the pictures of Abraham and Ishmael holding Azlams in their hands. Allah's Messenger said, "May Allah curse these people. By Allah, both Abraham and Ishmael never did the game of chance with Azlams." Then he entered the Ka`ba and said Takbir at its corners but did not offer the prayer in it".

Abdul Muttalib, during the siege of Mecca by the Yemenite ruler Abraha, recited a prayer which clearly acknowledges that they recognized the House as belonging to Allah alone:

"O Lord/Allah! A man protects his family, so protect Your people. Let not their cross and their strength overpower You. If You want to leave our Qibla at their mercy, then do as You please".

Another major relic from the time of Ibrahim is none other than the 'black stone'. It is fixed on one of the pillars/arkan of the edifice. It is one of the original stones Abraham used to build the Kaaba, as he built other altars and places of worship to God throughout his journeys Gen12:6-8,13:4,18. That Abrahamic practice we are told in the HB, was left to his posterity that similarly built places of worship symbolized by stones erected as pillars Gen28:10,18-22.