Ma Mingxin

Ma Mingxin (1719–1781) was a Chinese Sufi master, the founder of the Jahriyya menhuan (Naqshbandi Sufi order).

Names Ma Mingxin's Arabic given name was Ibrāhīm. After returning to China from Arabia he started calling himself 'Azīz.

He was also called Muhammad Emin . Followers of the Jahriyyah sometimes refer to him by the title of Wiqāyatullāh (Arabic: وقاية الله)

Life A Chinese-speaking Muslim from Gansu, studying in Mecca who was a son of az-Zayn b. Muhammad 'Abd al-Baqī al-Mizjaji (1643/44-1725), originally of Mizjaja near Zabīd, Yemen. Az-Zayn, in his turn, had studied in Medina under the famous Kurdish mystic Ibrahīm ibn Hasan al-Kūrānī (1616–1690), who was known for advocating the vocal (rather than silent) dhikr (invocation of the name of God). Ma Mingxin founded the Jahriyya menhuan (order) , the second Naqshbandi order in China after Ma Laichi's Khufiyya. In opposition to the "silent" Khufiyya Sufis, and following al-Kurani's teaching, Jahriyya adherents advocated vocal dhikr, which is reflected in the name of their school (from Arabic jahr, "aloud").

The escalating conflict between the adherents of the two movements eventually attracted attention of the Qing government in 1781. The apparent center of the conflict at the time was in the ethnic Salar community of Xunhua County (in today's Qinghai Province, just west of today's Gansu's Linxia Prefecture). Considering the Jahriyya (dubbed by the government The New Teaching, in opposition to the "Old Teaching", i.e. the Khfiyya and the non-Sufi (gedimu) Muslims) subversive, the authorities had Ma Mingxin arrested, even though he wasn't personally anywhere around Xunhua at the moment.

Legacy Ma Mingxin's death did not stop conflicts with China's Muslim community, or those between the Muslims and the government. Three years after the death of Ma Mingxin, his follower Tian Wu started a rebellion against the imperial government; after its defeat, the authorities remained on lookout against the spread of the "subversive" Jahriyya teachings.

The Jahriyya order continues to this day, even if in more covert forms.

In 1985, over 20,000 Chinese Muslims assembled at the site of Ma Mingxin's original (destroyed) tomb near Lanzhou for a commemoration ceremony. The tomb has since been rebuilt.

Ma Shaowu was a fourth generation descendant of Ma Mingxin, and Ma Shaowu's uncle Ma Yuanzhang was also a descendant, as was Ma Shaowu's great uncle Ma Shenglin . Ma Shaowu's son Ma Cho-ya is a fifth generation descendant and he currently lives in Urumqi.