Bijiachang Menhuan

It is a branch of Khufiyya Menhuan, one of the four main Chinese Islamic sects. Its Qubbah (a domed building) is located in Bijiachang in western Linxia City, Gansu Province, hence the name of this sect.

The founder of this sect is Ma Zongsheng (1639-1719), who was of Persian ancestry. He spent his childhood learning Arabic in a mosque in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. When he grew up he became an Akhund there and later imam of the mosque. Then he moved to Linxia of Gansu Province and became a senior Akhund in a mosque. He went to Xining City of Qinghai Province in 1673 to learn from Apāg Khwaja, a famous Islamic scholar and leader of the Xinjiang White-Mountain Muslims, and obtained the creeds of Khufiyya. Upon returning to Linxia, he began his missionary work, advocating that the various sects of Islam should respect each other no matter how different they are and that they should not refute each other at will and should not have fights with other believers.

This sect has never collided with other ones and it even allows its believers to build mosques with believers from the other sects and have services together. In terms of succession, the sect practices the hereditary. Believers of this sect are scattered mainly in Linxia, Hezheng and Lintan of Gansu Province, Songpan of Sichuan Province and Xiji of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.