Yusuf Ma Dexin · Lablypedia

Biography

Ajall Shams al-Din Omar was an ancestor in the 25th generation of Ma Dexin.

Hajj

Ma performed the Hajj in 1841, leaving China by a circuitous route; as ocean travel out of China had been disrupted by the First Opium War, he chose instead to leave with a group of Muslim merchants travelling overland. After passing through the Sipsong Panna, they went south to Konbaung Burma, then took a riverboat along the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay to Yangon. From Yangon, they were able to board a steamship, which took them to the Arabian Peninsula.

After Mecca, Ma stayed in the Middle East for another eight years; he first went to Cairo, where he studied at al-Azhar University, then travelled throughout the Ottoman Empire, going to Suez, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Cyprus, and Rhodes.

Return to China

As a prominent Muslim in Yunnan, Ma became involved in the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan shortly after he returned from the Hajj. The Panthay Rebellion, which flared up in 1856 as part of a wider series of uprisings by the Hui (Muslim Han Chinese) and other minorities, was led mainly by Du Wenxiu; though Ma disagreed with Du's revolutionary methods, he also encouraged his followers to aid in the uprising; later, he would try to act as a peacemaker between the central government forces and the rebels. Ma Dexin said that Neo-Confucianism was reconcilable with Islam. He approved of General Ma Rulong defecting to the Qing and he also assisted other Muslims in defecting. However, despite his efforts to bring about peace, the Qing government still regarded him as a rebel and a traitor; he was executed two years after the suppression of the rebellion. Europeans reported that he was either poisoned or executed.

After his return from travels throughout the Ottoman Empire, Ma Dexin staunchly opposed Shiism and Sufism. This view emerged partly due to the growing marginalization of the Hui within China and calls for unity among themselves against the tide of the dominant Han-led society.

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Role in the Panthay Rebellion

Ma Dexin was the most prominent Hui scholar in Yunnan. He used his prestige to act as a mediator between the different Hui factions & "helped orient and validate" the rebellion throughout the province. He was respected by both Du Wenxiu & Ma Rulong as a spiritual leader. In 1860; Ma Dexin sent forces to help Du Wenxiu fight the Qing; assuring him that:

"I have already secretly ordered my disciples [mensheng] Ma [Rulong] as the Grand Commander of Three Directions, with Ma Rong as second in command . . . to launch a rearguard attack from their base in Yimen."

Ma Dexin possessed a telescope that he had purchased while in Singapore, yet was unable to use it. In late 1867, M. Garnier a member of a French expedition met Ma in Kunming and adjusted the lenses for him. A grateful Ma then agreed to write for them a letter of recommendation to Du Wenxiu. Ma also asked officials along the route to Dali to provide the best service to the French Explorers. Muslim soldiers let the explorers pass due to Ma's letter.

Surrender to the Qing

There is evidence that Ma Dexin, Ma Rulong & the Hui forces with them only pretended to surrender (in 1862) in order to gain access to the city of Kunming. Even after their supposed capitulation to the Qing; Ma Rulong continued to issue proclamations using his seal "Generalissimo of the Three Directions" while Ma Dexin refused to accept the Civil title granted to him; not wanting to be associated with the Qing regime. The Hui rebels taunted the Hui who hadn't joined the rebellion as being fake Hui (jia Huizi). Taiwanese researcher Li Shoukong asserts that many Hui rebels had employed a similar tactic of pretending to surrender in the early years of the rebellion.

To test his loyalty Ma Rulong was sent to pacify the disgruntled magistrate of Lin'an (in Southern Yunnan). A few weeks after Ma Rulong left the city; rebel forces led by Ma Rong and Ma Liansheng stormed Kunming & captured it. Ma Rulong's forces had come to believe that he could no longer be trusted to achieve their goal of uniting under a single rebel government. In 1863 Ma Dexin declared himself "King-Who-Pacifies-the-South (Pingnan Wang)", seized the official seals & stopped using the Qing reign year when dating documents. Ma Dexin hoped to keep the rebel forces united under him until he could hand over control to Du Wenxiu.

Ma Rulong immediately rushed back to Kunming, and attacked the city along with Qing forces;. He ordered Ma Dexin to give up his seals of office & placed him under house arrest. According to a French missionary, Ma Rulong "arrested Lao Baba [Ma Dexin] whose conduct, as you know, has always been very ambiguous, but not any more. This old fox was consigned to the palace in which Ma [Rulong's] family lives."

Ma Dexin opposed Ma Rulong's acceptance of the Qing policy of "using Hui to fight other Hui". When he travelled to Dali to meet Du Wenxiu for their only and final meeting, he told him that:

"The provincial government has given Eastern Hui leaders' official positions so that the Hui will fight each other. This is the cruelest of [the Qing's] furtive plots. So we must turn it around [and use it] against them . . . why should we fall into their trap?"

He also warned Du that:

"We should, have the [Qing] government fall into a Hui plan, not let the Hui fall into the government's [plan]."

Execution

The Qing official Cen Yuying disliked Ma Dexin and the Hui. In April 1874 he ordered an investigation into Ma Dexin's activities and charged him along with three others of formenting unrest. Cen claimed that when Ma Dexin was found he was on a hunger strike & on the brink of death, hence he ordered that Ma be "summarily executed". Though few Hui were convinced by Cen's words and knew that Ma had been assassinated.