Ma Fuxiang

Ma Fuxiang (4 February 1876 – 19 August 1932) was a Hui Muslim scholar, general and politician from Linxia in Gansu: a son of Ma Qianling, the younger brother of Ma Fulu and the father of Ma Hongkui. He governed Ningxia from 1912 to 1920 and Suiyuan from 1921 to 1925, and later chaired the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. He founded the China Islamic Association, financed Muslim schools and publishing, and took a public stance against the menhuan system and religious sectarianism. ^{1 2 3}

There is an Urdu article on him but no Arabic one; this page rests on the English, Chinese and Urdu articles, as stated in its sources. The Urdu article is a translation of the English and is one source family with it.

He was born at Linxia (Hezhou) on 4 February 1876, a date on which the English and Chinese articles and Wikidata agree. He studied the Qur'an as a child — the Chinese article says at a mosque — and rose in the military world his father and brothers had built in the northwest. The English article, citing Lipman, names his elder brothers as Ma Fushou, Ma Fulu and Ma Fucai; the two articles differ only on whether he was Ma Qianling's third or fourth son. When Ma Fulu was killed at Peking in 1900, Ma Fuxiang succeeded to his brother's command and inherited his army. His son Ma Hongkui later inherited that army in turn and ruled Ningxia. ^{1 2}

Under the Republic he governed Ningxia from 1912 to 1920 and Suiyuan from 1921 to 1925, and in his later years chaired the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission. Alongside office he worked as an editor and patron of learning: he edited the Shuofang Daozhi gazetteer and supported Muslim schools, imams and publishing. He founded the China Islamic Association and other Kuomintang-sponsored Islamic organisations, presenting them as instruments of education and national unity for China's Muslims. ^{1 2}

His public position set him apart from the menhuan world of the northwest. He opposed religious sectarianism and the menhuan system itself, which he held to be a cause of violence, and promoted education and unity between the sects of Islam in China rather than backing any one sect or imam; the Chinese article likewise notes his skill at mediating between ethnic groups and between religious sects. He was an enemy of the Jahriyya leader Ma Yuanzhang. ^{1 2}

He died on 19 August 1932, aged 56. The sources carry the place in three related readings, recorded here together rather than harmonised: the Chinese article and both infoboxes place the death at Beiping (Beijing); the English article's text says he died near Liangxiang while travelling to Beijing for medical treatment; and the Chinese article on his son Ma Hongkui says he fell ill on a journey undertaken for his son's sake and died at Liulihe, Zhuozhou, on the way. ^{1 2 4}

His faith is recorded as unknown. The sources present a Muslim public figure — educated in the Qur'an as a child, founder of Islamic organisations, patron of schools and imams — who deliberately placed himself above the orders, opposing the menhuan system and sectarian division; no source read names a school or an order as his own affiliation, and Wikidata carries no religion value for him. ^{1 2 3 5}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.
• Revisions of this article must be dated, and must name the source that changed each fact.