Beizhuang Menhuan

It is a branch of Khufiyya Menhuan (saintly lineage), a famous Chinese Islamic sect. It is popular among the Dongxiang Muslims and is the biggest Islamic sect in the Dongxiang people.

The founder of Beizhuang Menhuan is Ma Baozhen (1772-1826), who was born in a place called Beizhuang, hence the name of the religious sect.

At the beginning, Ma Baozhen disseminated creeds of the Huasi Menhuan. Later, he went to Xinjiang to learn Islamic scriptures. There he met a scholar believed to be a descendant of Mohammed and learned from him creeds and methods of self-cultivation of khufiyya. In 1814, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. After his return, he taught creeds of khufiyya first in Beizhuang, his home village, and then in the whole Northwest China.

In religious claims, this sect emphasizes on practicing the Five Pillars of Islam, which are the framework of the Muslim life: faith, prayer, concern for the needy, self-purification, and the pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able), first and then three paths of self-cultivation. It pays special attention to Kouhuan (instructions from Allah). Every new religious leader should go to the central mosque of the sect in Xinjiang to get Kouhuan, and only after this can he be respected as Senior. There are believers of this sect in Hui, Sala and Baoan peoples besides the Dongxiang people. They are mainly scattered in Gansu Province, Qinghai Province and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.