Xianmen Menhuan

Xianmen Menhuan (saintly lineage) is a branch of the famous Khufiyya Menhuan in China. The founder of the sect was Xian Meizhen, and the sect was named after him.

Xian Meizhen (1661-1739) was a native of Qinghai Province in Northwest China. He used to learn from Apāg, who was leader of the White-Mountain Muslims and a famous Islamic scholar from Arabia. He learned creeds of Khufiyya Sect and then disseminated his religious beliefs in Xining area and other places.

In religious views, this sect lays stress on Tariqah instead of Wugong (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). It requires the believers to sit still in meditation. In some religious rites, there is a sense of mystery. For example, when they have Amal (service), they should do it with the doors and windows closed and participants should burn incense and recite prayers, hold the religious leader's hands and kiss his palm, and there should be no other people present.

Later, the sect was divided into several branches. At the beginning of the 20th century, a branch migrated to Xiji of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region led by the grandson of Xian Meizhen, who founded Xijixianmen Menhuan. After 1949, the fifth leader of Xianmen Menhuan migrated to Xinjiang area with all of his kin, and from then on, the succession of the sect's leader came to an end.