Yusuf Ma Dexin

Yusuf Ma Dexin
Traditional Chinese	馬德新
Simplified Chinese	马德新
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mă Déxīn Wade–Giles Ma Te-hsin
Courtesy name (字)
Traditional Chinese	復初
Simplified Chinese	复初
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fùchū Wade–Giles Fu-ch'u

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ma.

Yusuf Ma Dexin (also Ma Tesing; 1794–1874) was a Hui Chinese scholar of Islam from Yunnan, known for his fluency and proficiency in both Arabic and Persian, and for his knowledge of Islam.

Biography

Hajj

Ma performed the Hajj in 1841, leaving China by a circuitous route; as ocean travel out of China had been disrupted by the Opium War, he chose instead to leave with a group of Muslim merchants travelling overland. After passing through Xishuangbanna, they went south to Burma, then took a riverboat along the Irrawaddy River from Mandalay to Rangoon. From Rangoon, they were able to board a steamship which took them all the way to the Arabian Peninsula. After his time in Mecca, he 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 Muslims and other minorities, was led mainly by Du Wenxiu; though Ma disagreed with Du Wenxiu'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, approved of 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.

Works

Sources say that Ma produced the first Chinese translation of the Qur'an, as well as writing numerous books in Arabic and Persian about Islam. His most famous writings compared Islamic culture and the Confucian philosophy in an effort to find a theoretical and theological basis for their coexistence. At the same time, he harshly criticised the absorption of Buddhist and Taoist elements into the practise of Islam in China. As he is generally regarded as an orthodox Islamic thinker, his writings also demonstrated a positive attitude towards Tasawwuf, or Sufi mysticism. In total, he published over 30 books, most of which fall into five categories.

• Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy: 四典要会, 大化总归, 道行究竟, 理学折衷, 性命宗旨, 礼法启爱 据理质证,
• Islamic calendar and history: 寰宇述要 (Description of the World), 天方历源 (History of Arabia)
• Introduction and analysis of works of other Muslim authors in China, such as Ma Zhu and Liu Zhu: 真诠要录, 指南要言, 天方性理注释
• Qur'an: the first five volumes of 宝命真经直解 (True Revealed Scripture), the earliest translation of the meanings of the Qur'an into Chinese
• Arabic grammar: 纳哈五 (Nahawu), 赛尔夫 (Saierfu), 阿瓦米勒 (Awamile)
• Other: 朝觐途记 (Diary of a pilgrimage), a description of his time in Mecca; originally in Arabic, translated to Chinese by Ma's disciple Ma Anli

Ma Dexin appears to have picked up anti-Shia hatred from his time in the Ottoman lands and referred to them by the derogatory name Rafida 若废子 in his works which attacked and criticized Shias and Sufis. Ma, like other most other Hui in China, belonged to the Hanafi Madhhab of Sunni Islam..

See also

• Islam in China
• Liu Zhi (scholar), an earlier Muslim scholar who also attempted to reconcile Islam and Confucian philosophy
• Muhammad Ma Jian, a later Chinese translator of the Qur'an who also studied at Al-Azhar

Sources

Notes

•  This article incorporates text from The history of China, Volume 2, by Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger, a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.

External links

• English translation and commentary of his 续天方三字经 “Three-Character Classic on the Kaaba”
• 试论马德新著作中的"天"及伊斯兰教和儒教关系
• 试论马德新著作中的“天”及伊斯兰教和儒教关系
• 王建平：试论马德新著作中的“天”及伊斯兰教和儒教关系
• 马德新的大化思想
• 马德新的大化思想
• 《古蘭經》在中國