Introduction
During the nineteenth century, the intellectual interconnections between Sino-Muslims and their Arab co-religionists were growing ever stronger. To a large extent, the strength of these links was fostered by the work of Ma Dexin 馬德新 (1794–1874), the last major Sino-Muslim scholar in pre-modern China.Footnote 1 Ma was a prolific author and his literary output covered most of the religious sciences, including instructional materials for students, a record of his pilgrimage to Mecca, and the first attempt at a standardized translation of the Qur'an, along with theological treatises written in both Chinese and Arabic. For Ma, inter-Asian cooperation was negotiated through the means of religious education, which was enabled through travel and language. Ma's writings provided Sino-Muslims with the discursive and pragmatic tools for engaging a global Muslim community. He created an intellectual infrastructure for transnational connections between China and the Middle East by enabling flows of religious ideas, leading towards a pan-Islamic community that was bound together by a common language and pivoted around a central religious environment.
In what follows, I demonstrate how Ma Dexin modelled the importance of global connections of intellectual and personal interaction between his local Chinese community and Muslims in the Middle East. Specifically, I delineate how Ma's work contributed to the growth of inter-Asian networks of religious learning by exemplifying the value of Middle Eastern travel and fluency in Arabic. While this position may seem self-evident, this notion was not prominent among Sino-Muslims authors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I employ Ma's Chinese and Arabic written works in relation to those of earlier authors to illustrate how he significantly differed from previous Sino-Muslim authors with regard to the use of Arabic discourse within the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition and in his emphatic urgings to perform the hajj pilgrimage. I also briefly show how his divergent position was embraced, as exhibited through the efforts of one of his direct disciples. Thus, this paper both reveals the under-studied work of Ma Dexin and situates his contribution within the broader intellectual history of Sino-Islamic scholarship.Footnote 2
Historical setting
During the middle of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and into the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Muslims in China began to embrace the Chinese characteristics of their environment. Arab, Persian, and Central Asian peoples were slowly assimilating, intermarrying with native people, and gradually forgetting their original languages, after imperial processes were established to divide them from their homelands and accelerate acculturation into Chinese society.Footnote 3 Due to these circumstances, several scholar-teachers began to incorporate tenets from traditional Chinese education into their promotion of Islamic knowledge in order to enable Chinese-speaking Muslims to approach their intellectual heritage. As a result, some Sino-Muslim literati established an educational system—scripture hall education (jingtang jiaoyu 經堂教育)—which utilized an Islamic curriculum made up of Arabic, Persian as well as Chinese works.Footnote 4 The scripture hall system was developed to counter the negative intellectual effects of assimilation on Islamic learning within larger Chinese society. Concerns about the loss of their Muslim heritage was the impetus for constructing an indigenous structure and process for preserving Islamic knowledge that would produce learned Muslim scholars. Scripture hall education was offered as a parallel and complementary system to mainstream Confucian academies, and many male participants were enrolled in both.Footnote 5 Through the scripture hall system the Sino-Muslim intellectual elite of the late Ming and early Qing periods bypassed the religious isolation of past generations and developed productive systems for combining their Islamic and Chinese heritages through the production and maintenance of religious knowledge.
It was through the inclusion of Chinese as a discursive Islamic language and the development of an official system, modelled on Central Asian and Middle Eastern madrasas, to spread localized Islamic knowledge that a distinct Sino-Islamic literature began to take shape. The Han Kitab is the collective name of the corpus of Islamic texts written in Chinese that were produced within this system. These theological and mystical treatises explained many of the Islamic sciences through the cultural patterns of the Chinese literary tradition and in the language of Buddhism, Daoism, and Neo-Confucianism. Chinese-language Islamic texts were produced to make advanced Islamic teachings accessible to the highly Sinicized Muslims, which were most popular in eastern China, especially large city centres such as Nanjing. Many of the Han Kitab texts were produced by a group of self-identified ‘Confucian Muslim’ scholars (Huiru 回儒).Footnote 6 Linguistic limitations failed to provide many Sino-Muslims with direct access to Arabic and Persian texts but the Han Kitab treatises provided this religious knowledge in an intelligible form and through recognizable expressions. Several important authors, including Wang Daiyu 王岱輿 (circa 1590–1658), Zhang Zhong 張中 (circa 1584–1661), Wu Zixian 伍子先 (1612–1680), Ma Zhu 馬注 (circa 1620–1711), and Liu Zhi 劉智 (circa 1670–1724), translated Islam through the lens of Chinese culture for the local audience.Footnote 7
During the nineteenth century Ma Dexin was one of the pivotal authors within this intellectual tradition. While he valued and continued the Chinese style of earlier authors, ultimately he shifted the discursive framework of Sino-Islamic scholarship away from the sole reliance on Chinese language texts to an integrated curriculum, which also emphasized discursive fluency in Arabic. Ma's writings served two primary functions for establishing religious authority and authenticity in the Sino-Islamic tradition: asserting the primacy of Middle Eastern travel and comprehension of Arabic Islamic discourse. Ma drew attention to the importance of physical connections with Muslims in the Middle East through his transformative experience of pilgrimage. Along with his theological works, his hajj memoir demystified the pilgrimage for Sino-Muslims while simultaneously asserting its importance as an essential religious obligation. His precedent enabled his Chinese co-religionists to acquire both logistical knowledge of the journey and the determination and resolve to undertake the pilgrimage. Additionally, Ma re-established Sino-Muslim reliance on Arabic for scholarly production and instruction. His numerous Arabic treatises illustrate that Ma intended these works to ready his students for participating in global Islamic dialogues. Not only linguistic competency but also discursive familiarity was necessary for effective communication across inter-Asian Muslim communities. Overall, Ma promoted inter-cultural communication and travel in order to strengthen religious understanding and commitment. The transmission of religious thought across Asia accompanied the global movement of Sino-Muslims and thus encouraged valuable global Muslim relationships. For Ma, discursive literacy, linguistic capability, and direct personal engagement were the essential ingredients for sustaining critical and meaningful pan-Islamic interactions.
Ma Dexin and the hajj pilgrimage
The catalyst for Ma Dexin's position on Islam was his initial process of performing the hajj pilgrimage, which shaped his perspective on religious education for the Sino-Muslim community. In his writings he emphasized the performance of the hajj journey itself, asserting its doctrinal necessity, while arguing for its ability to rectify and renew religious understanding. He viewed the hajj as both personally transformational and a religious obligation, like many of his predecessors, but also believed it was individually attainable and doctrinally rectifying, in contrast to many earlier Sino-Muslim scholars such as Wang Daiyu and Liu Zhi. He discussed the pilgrimage directly in his Scripture of Bright Virtue (Mingde jing 明德經) and Record of the Pilgrimage Journey (Chaojin Tuji 朝覲途記) as well as intermittently in the rest of his writings. In the Scripture of Bright Virtue, Ma described the liturgical aspects of the pilgrimage and laid out the physical geography of the Meccan religious environment and the stages of passing through it. Ma constantly reiterated the importance of the hajj and never distinguished it from other pillars of faith, which had enabled earlier scholars to allow it to be abandoned, as will be seen. In Record of the Pilgrimage Journey, Ma mapped out the physical realities of the entire journey from China to the Middle East. Overall, he understood the pilgrimage as a means of engaging with the broader Muslim world and a vehicle for gaining what he perceived as an authoritative interpretation of Islam.
Obligation and observance
In his Scripture of Bright Virtue Ma dealt with the hajj directly in a chapter entitled ‘Pilgrimage’ (chaojin 朝規). This short section addressed legal and theological conditions or explanations for performing the hajj. The pilgrimage was discussed in the broader context of ritualistic activity as it can be broadly conceived of in the Islamic context. Therefore, the hajj was treated in the same setting as wedding ceremonies, burial rituals, divorce, ablution and other acts of observance. This placement marked a shift in discursive procedures and indicated that by the time Ma was writing, most Muslims who would have read his texts understood the importance of the hajj, both as a necessary observance that was ethically compelling and one that would produce beneficial merit. It would also have been necessary for Ma's readers to comprehend the legalistic aspects of performing this religious obligation.
The content of Ma's Mingde jing dealt primarily with the legal conditions of the pilgrimage and the traditional behaviours associated with the various stages of the ritual. He described how one ritually prepares oneself for the hajj, the clothing one wears, and permissible and prohibited activities and items. Throughout his narration, Ma outlined the geographical routes within the Meccan sanctuary and referred to several specific locations. For example, he declared, ‘Taking the oath (shoujie 受戒)Footnote 8 of the pilgrimage ceremony, one stays at Arafat (erleifate 爾勒法特, ‘Arafāt). . . Arriving at muzdalifah (muzideleifa 母資德勒法, muzdalifah) one halts.’Footnote 9 In many ways this made his text a reliable source for understanding the journey. His real life experience gave authority to his outline of ritual observances. Each leg of the ceremonies was detailed until the completion of the pilgrimage. Finally, he explained, ‘At Mina (mile 彌勒, mitā—misspelled in Arabic) one emits from the right point. Together they (pilgrims) recite the word in praise. The pilgrimage is completed with a measure of hair and the breaking of prohibitions.’Footnote 10 The physicality of the description in the Mingde jing enabled Muslims to both understand their obligations and imagine themselves in the Meccan surroundings. Ma relayed the significance of the pilgrimage by outlining the liturgical details of the pilgrimage and bringing them to life through his experiential description. Knowledge of each facet and feature of the hajj equipped the believer with the tools to enact and actualize their religious journey.
In contrast, Wang Daiyu's emphasis was on faith in the benefits of the pilgrimage and acknowledgement of the sacred geography it established. Due to the historical living conditions during the transitional period between the Ming and Qing leadership, Sino-Muslims reading Wang's work were very unlikely to actually perform the pilgrimage, and, in fact, Wang himself was unable to complete the hajj. The reluctance to travel abroad was a product of continued restrictive imperial laws, lack of established transnational networks, and focused reinforcement of intra-China Muslims connections. Instead of speaking to the enactment of the hajj, Wang delineated the theological implications of performing the pilgrimage. For example, Wang noted the personal transformation that takes place upon arriving at the Ka'bah:
Arriving at this space (the Ka'bah) one travels to His courtyard building and does not see their former person. During the pilgrimage experience of the Heavenly Square one returns to consider the original Lord and the self opens up and begins to awaken. What is this that creates and transforms heaven and earth?Footnote 11
Rather then delineating any legalistic perspectives on the pilgrimage's performance, authors like Wang tended to focus on the affective aspects relating to personal attainment. Ma Dexin's move towards the description of valid activities during the pilgrimage and conceptually grouping it with other legal subjects demonstrates that he viewed it differently from the prevailing Sino-Islamic paradigm.
The Scripture of Bright Virtue also most clearly asserts that the pilgrimage was not a peripheral activity of secondary importance. The hajj was set as one of the cardinal observances of the Islamic tradition and he believed it should be understood in this manner and followed accordingly. The most revealing point on the importance of the hajj is found in Ma's opening passage where he specified who was required to perform the pilgrimage:
As for the ceremony of pilgrimage, it is for good believers (mumin 穆民) who are twelve years old or above, those in good health and lacking illness, who have traveling expenses, sufficient strength, have a steed, and is one who has practical materials, or who is rich and has much to spare, or whose house expenses are sufficient.Footnote 12
Ma was clear in his promotion of the hajj as a required practice for Muslims. He asserted that Sino-Muslims should not be remiss when considering the pilgrimage. Unlike earlier Sino-Muslim authors, he was explicit in defining who was obliged to perform the pilgrimage rather than simply providing general advice such as, ‘If one is able, he must go there.’ Ma delineated who should be able to go on hajj and, therefore, established who should perform the pilgrimage.
Liu Zhi also viewed the hajj as a personal transformative experience and a religious responsibility of utmost importance. However, he simultaneously set forth a number of acceptable reasons for not performing the pilgrimage and methods for gaining equivalent merit if one did not go on hajj. At the conclusion of his lengthy chapter on the pilgrimage in his Rituals of Islam (Tianfang dianli 天方典禮), Liu discussed at length the reasons why Muslims do not have to go on the hajj. Alongside more common exonerations, like health, finances or family duties, Liu employed a creative rhetorical interpretation of the obligation to perform the hajj by extending its value to other ritual activities. Through more regular ritual performances Sino-Muslims were able to participate in the community of Muslims despite their remote position from the sacred centre. Ritual activity enabled this group to be in contact with the community and God through the meaningful sense of rituals of belonging created for the participant. For those who were unable to return to the Ka'bah they could rely on other rituals to participate in the observance. In this regard, Liu asserted that,
Qurbān (guerbang 古而邦) and pilgrimage have the same meaning. Altogether, they are intended to seek closeness to the Lord. However, while the pilgrimage is the ceremony of personally visiting the Heavenly House, Qurbān is for people from a far distance, who cannot reach the Heavenly House and is a ceremony that is practiced everywhere. Therefore, their ceremonial rules are more or less the same.Footnote 13
Qurbān is celebrated at the end of the hajj during ‘Eīd al-’Aḍḥā to commemorate Ibrāhīm's willingness to sacrifice his son ‘Ismā‘īl. Through the celebration of Qurbān and the sacrificing of a sheep, Sino-Muslims were able to demonstrate their desire to take part in the hajj even if they were prevented in some way from participating in it in person. By making the Qurbān sacrifice equivalent in merit with the pilgrimage, Liu presented his readers with the means for understanding their relationship to God and the Muslim community without incurring culpability for contravening one of the pillars.
Liu also likened the pilgrimage ritual to more common activities in which a much broader population of Sino-Muslims could participate. These activities extended moral and ethical merit to familiar relationships and deeds. He maintained,
Father and Mother are the origin of one's birth. Morning and evening one should visit one's parents. This is the pilgrimage of residing at home. Worthies and erudite individuals are the origin of thoroughly understanding the teachings. Morning and evening one should be intimate with them. This is the pilgrimage of residing in a natural position. The heart is the origin of a hundred affairs. Examine and investigate it while in motion and at rest. This is the pilgrimage of oneself. The Lord Ruler (zhuzai 主宰) is the root origin of the myriad transformations. Within the mouth silently invoke Him, within the heart praise and extol Him. This is the pilgrimage of the most earnest. Generally, most people are unable to go on pilgrimage to the heavenly square; but they can observe these several things. They are also able to have the merits and achievements of personally going on pilgrimage to the heavenly square.Footnote 14
Here, Liu's unique perspective is revealed in full. While participation in the pilgrimage would be most desirable, and knowledge of and belief in its benefits are essential to spiritual development, sincere intentions produce equal merit from quotidian behaviour to that of undertaking the hajj.
For a local community who would not easily be able to perform the pilgrimage, Liu provided a theological perspective that did not exclude them from ritual obligations. During the eighteenth century Sino-Muslims in southeast China still did not regularly travel abroad.Footnote 15 Despite his detailed description of the rituals performed in Mecca and his recommendation in favour of performing the pilgrimage, Liu Zhi followed his own allowance by not performing the pilgrimage himself. Although he travelled widely throughout China, he was never able to voyage beyond its borders nor did he explain why he was unable to go the Mecca. However, his interpretive approach to the hajj enabled Sino-Muslims to both feel secure with their personal redemption and their communal belonging due to the opinion that their sincere deeds would be judged based on their intentions and not on the fact that they were not able to perform one of the five pillars.
The explicit contrast between Ma Dexin and earlier perspectives on religious duty demonstrated that Ma was the most forthright of Sino-Muslim authors in stipulating the observance of the pilgrimage. Liu Zhi, for example, clearly drafted several possibilities for overlooking this duty while Ma outlined measures of requirements that encompassed a much larger portion of the Sino-Muslim population. For Ma, the hajj was a tangible experience that he felt many more Sino-Muslims could carry out. Obviously, this was a result of his own personal history since he was able to travel to the Middle East for an extended period. For that reason, he illustrated that the pilgrimage should be thought of in the same vein as the other pillars of Islam and actualized by Sino-Muslims. The final and key characteristic of Ma's strong advocacy for going on hajj was his personal chronicle of his own travels abroad. This text provided practical information for organizing travel abroad and detailed explanations of various facets of the religious setting of Mecca and Muslim communities throughout the Middle East and beyond.
A pilgrimage journey
Ma Dexin was not the first Sino-Muslim to go on hajj but he was the first pilgrim to record his hajj journey. His pilgrimage was extensive in its geographical exploration and extended duration. Ma began his pilgrimage in 1841 and spent a total of eight years travelling throughout the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Upon his return he began writing and became the most prominent scholar in southern China. His travel journal—Record of the Pilgrimage Journey—was completed when he returned in 1849. He wrote it in Arabic but the original manuscript has since been lost. However, Ma Anli 馬安禮 (d. 1899), one of his foremost students, translated the text into Chinese in 1861 thereby making it accessible to the broader Sino-Muslim population. In it Ma Dexin rarely reflected on his personal emotions or spiritual advancements but chose to describe in detail the characteristics of the pilgrimage journey itself. Along the way he described the places, lengths of time, and approximate distances between locations. The narrative was markedly formal, laconic, and impersonal. It outlined each juncture of the journey and detailed the practical and advantageous features of travel. Throughout, foreign words for people, places, and ideas were translated into Chinese, transliterated with Chinese characters, and written in Arabic. He also noted the date of each phase of his trip in both the western Islamic calendar (al-taqwīm al-hijrī) and in the Qing dynasty Daoguang reign period.
The choice to focus on the particular features of his travels and the places he visited rather than the experiential sentiments he gained or emotions he felt along the route is revealing in several ways. By removing himself from the experience, Ma demonstrated what every pilgrim might encounter. This enabled any Sino-Muslim to imagine how their own pilgrimage might unfold. While Ma Dexin was an exceptional figure, this text eclipsed his unparalleled knowledge and remarkable achievements by favouring an outline of the stages of a journey to the Middle East. Additionally, these details provided the logistical knowledge for pilgrims to embark on their own hajj. This text provided the length of time a pilgrim would require, locations where individuals could stay, and detailed descriptions of the features of the holy city Mecca and the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Ḥarām). Further, by withholding his personal feelings about his trip he was able to encourage others and renew or sustain their determination to begin their own pilgrimage. Certainly Ma experienced troubled times and had reservations about his travels but the reader remains acutely unaware of them from a reading of Record of the Pilgrimage Journey. Removing these elements from Ma's text made it much more effective and compelling in encouraging other Sino-Muslims to make the pilgrimage themselves.
Ma set off for the pilgrimage, leaving through Rangoon, Burma, via an old spice route. Yunnanese traders had been exchanging goods along this route for hundreds of years, covering the eastern frontiers of Tibet, through Burma, Thailand, Laos, and North Vietnam, and including the southern Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. In this first phase of the journey Ma travelled alongside merchants, often by foot, stopping at various smaller cities and villages. He would travel for several days at a time, sometimes for over a week, before stopping for a few days to recover and interact with the local community. He often pointed out the features of the local Muslim community, for example, in the ancient capital Ava (modern-day Inwa), he described the abundance of believers in the Hanafī system and a few from the Shāfi‘ī system. He then arrived in Rangoon and spent five months living there while waiting for a ship to take him to the Middle East. From the port of Rangoon Ma headed for Mecca by sea.
Ma's sea travel was often rough. He reported that the Indian Ocean was extremely stormy and the wind was against them, obliging Ma to live on the ship for 40 days. He finally reached Calcutta where he resided for four months. He described this city as one which boasted great buildings, where the walls were decorated with engravings. At the time, Calcutta was both a cultural and commercial hub and Ma also described its bustling industry. He outlined a religious landscape that was made up in large part of Muslims, some whom he described as people of Rāfidah, which was an Iranian Shi'a community. He also remarked that there were a number of Wahhābi Muslims in the area. In general, Ma seems to have appreciated the Muslim community of Calcutta and their dedication to preserving their religion through textual reproduction. He made specific note of the high level of publishing of sacred scriptures and religious texts. After his Indian sojourn Ma boarded ‘The Will of Solomon’ (shā’ Sulaymān), heading southwest to round Cape Comorin then towards Arabia. After a long journey Ma eventually arrived in Yemen at the port city of Aden. Here he visited the shrine of Sayyīd Abū Bakr al-‘Aydarūs (d. 1509).Footnote 16 He then stopped briefly in Mocha and Hudaydah before setting off for Jeddah. From here Ma began the final phase of his journey before approaching Mecca. He travelled for two nights by camel and by horse and donkey for one night and, finally, as dawn began to break, he reached Mecca.
Ma described the characteristics of the Ka‘bah and its environs in great detail. He illustrated its shape, length, height, and the cardinal direction of each of its sides. He then detailed its adornments, such as the brocade curtain covering it (kiswah), the Ka‘bah's entrance, and the black stone surrounded by a silver frame (al-ḥajar al-aswad). He related that, ‘At approximately twenty steps in the front of the holy court there is Abraham's position, which was his stepping stone for building the Ka‘bah. This stone is above his footprint.’Footnote 17 He described the ancient wall formed like a bow with its height reaching a person's chest, called ḥijr Isma‘il, which some say is the location of the tomb where ‘Ismā‘īl is buried. He recorded the sites where religious leaders were positioned in order to make legal rulings on ritual observance and spiritual matters.Footnote 18 Ma also catalogued at great length the names and positions of the numerous gates to the Sacred Mosque.Footnote 19 He ended his description by stating, ‘the sacred courtyard has seven towers to announce the rites (i.e. minarets)’.Footnote 20 Finally, Ma sketched a portrait of the Sacred Mosque with all of the details he previously described, entitled ‘The Form of the Sacred Mosque and Ka‘bah’.
Ma's travels did not end in Mecca though. He explored the celebrated sites of the area such as the birthplace of the Prophet and the battlegrounds of Badr, among others, before heading to Medina. Here he again provided a detailed description of the distances between the two cities, how he travelled, and the places he visited. Most completely he detailed Muhammad's tomb in the Mosque of the Prophet (al-Masjid al-Nabawi). He discussed the architecture, the religious institutions, and positions and practices of those people paying respect to the Prophet.
The precision of his description of the Ka‘bah, the Sacred Mosque, and the Prophet's tomb is essential to his overall mission of demystifying the hajj for Sino-Muslims. His thorough examination and mapping of the Sacred Mosque enabled Sino-Muslims to become as familiar with it as they were with their local mosque. The intersubjectivity between Ma Dexin and his readers facilitated the domestication of the spiritual axis of the cosmos centred in Mecca, thus making it simultaneously native and foreign for the reader. This provided the catalyst for the deconstruction of Sino-Muslim alienation from the broader Muslim world and began the process of eliminating self-perceived social, financial, and geographic obstructions and limitations. Ma's Record of the Pilgrimage Journey also helped remove anxieties and fortify the hopes of Muslims as they returned to their religious homeland.
The remainder of Ma's travels through the Middle East was extensive. Throughout Record of the Pilgrimage Journey Ma continued to demarcate locations large and small; distances; length of time; points of interest; and cultural, economic, political, and religious customs and circumstances of the places he visited. For example, in Egypt he noted the general prosperity under the reign of Muḥammad ‘Alī Pāshā (muhanmode erli 母罕默德爾里). He recalled, ‘This king has tremendous courage and wisdom and was a good administrator. The Egyptian government renovated the tombs, established and amassed goods, and increased every class [of people].’Footnote 21 He was further impressed by the considerable number of Muslims throughout Egypt and the overall religious enthusiasm of its subjects. He noted the majestic beauty and grandeur of al-Azhar Mosque (jāmi’ al-Azhar, mierazixie 米耳阿茲偕) and the many disciples of holy people (shengmen 聖門). He visited the graves and tombs of such notable Muslims as ‘the great worthy (daxian 大賢)’ [Imam] al-Shāfi‘ī (767–820) (shafeier 沙菲爾), ‘the great worthy’ Abu'l-’Abbas al-Mursī (d. 1288) (ebailaierboshi 額白來爾波士), and ‘the revered (zunzhe 尊者)’ Muḥammad al-Būṣīrī's (1211–94) (muhamode busuili 母哈默德補雖里), as well as Galen of Pergamon (129–216) (jālīnūs, zhoulinushi 卓裡努士) and Ptolemy (90–c. 168) (baṭalīmūs, tuanlimushi 白團裡穆士).
Before heading home to China, Ma visited the Sultan in Constantinople, where he was granted permission to visit the imperial palace; spent some time in Damascus; returned to Egypt; lived in Jerusalem for half a year; and studied astronomy and geography in Singapore.
The Record of the Pilgrimage Journey asserted the significance of the pilgrimage as a necessary and obtainable Islamic observance. Ma also eliminated the uncertainty and wonder about the hajj by mapping the physical terrain and delineating the logistical details for Chinese pilgrims. He eliminated the unknown exceptional characteristics from the hajj by clearly delineating the various trepidations pilgrims may have felt, thus making it a tenable prospect for Sino-Muslims. Altogether, Record of the Pilgrimage Journey demonstrated that the pilgrimage was a means of engaging with the broader Muslim world and a channel for doctrinal exchange and dialogue. This text, more than any other, offered a new perspective on the pilgrimage from the Chinese vantage point, and by detailing the particulars of the voyage, he provided Sino-Muslims with both logistical knowledge and inspiration to embark on the journey. Unfortunately, the laconic and withdrawn nature of Ma's account, which makes it easily commandeered by Sino-Muslim pilgrims, sheds little light on the details of Ma's encounters. Here and elsewhere in his writings, he fails to describe the interactions he must have had with others and only implies these connections when discussing how his perspective on Islam changed during his travels.
Ideological reformation
For all Muslims, the pilgrimage was a monumental event, both spiritually and socially. Both an inner and outer transformation can reflect how pilgrims view the world and situate themselves within it. Record of the Pilgrimage Journey was consistent with pilgrimage accounts that emerged in the face of colonial presences and the expanding limits of community within a globalizing world. Pilgrimage travel writing became a prominent genre, beginning in the eighteenth century, but, similar to Ma's work, most accounts were concentrated on the details of travel as opposed to being autobiographical in nature.Footnote 22 However, Ma revealed his individual metamorphosis in some of his writings and allowed us to glimpse at his feelings towards the personally intimate change that happens as a result of performing the hajj. One of the long-term effects of Ma's pilgrimage experience was the shift in his interpretive viewpoint. This period of his life was transformative for his doctrinal beliefs, and his encounters with Middle Eastern Muslims certainly shaped his interpretation of Islam. In particular, in his major work, the Essence of the Four Canons (Sidian Yaohui 四典要會), the editor of this work, his student Ma Anli, informs us that the knowledge gained on the pilgrimage journey enabled him to explicate the tenets of Islam:
He made pilgrimage to the Heavenly court (diting 帝庭), steadily lowering himself to the traditional customs and good governance of the ancient sages (xiansheng 先聖). He studied directly with famous worthies (xian 賢) and erudite scholars. In a period covering over eight years, his knowledge of the study of nature (xing 性) and mandate (ming 命) deepened. Upon returning, he closed his doors in order to examine and rectify [his understanding of Islam]. He joined together that which he obtained in Arabia and that which was possessed in the ancient collected canons of the eastern lands. He uncovered the essence [of Islam] by drawing out and gathering. This constitutes what is bound in the chapters of this book and serves as a kindness to my companions.Footnote 23
From this passage we see that the convictions and customs that Ma developed before his pilgrimage needed to be reexamined after his exposure to the currents of Islamic thought in the Middle East. The experiential knowledge he gained from his trip, combined with his intellectual training, produced the fruits of his literary output. Therefore, Ma was directly influenced by the pilgrimage and it shaped how he understood the Islamic tradition and transformed his theological grounding.
Overall, Ma Dexin created the most complete picture of the hajj for the Sino-Muslim audience. He delineated the details involved in orchestrating and executing a pilgrimage journey, provided the ritual requirements from a legalistic and terrestrial standpoint, and demonstrated the transformative power of the pilgrimage experience from his own perspective. Therefore, Ma's contribution to understanding the value of religious travel was essential for a globalizing community of Sino-Muslims who were beginning to move beyond their native borders and convene with the larger congregation. To facilitate global communication Ma also emphasized linguistic competency and discursive literacy in Arabic Islamic discourses. The combination of religious travel and linguistic authority are two overriding themes throughout Ma's writings.
Ma Dexin and Arabic
An essential ingredient for actualizing global Muslim interactions and Sino-Muslim participation was language capability. In this regard, Ma Dexin reintroduced Arabic as an authoritative discourse for approaching Islam in the Chinese context, writing several compositions entirely in Arabic. Prior to Ma's work, the Sino-Islamic literary tradition almost entirely comprised Chinese language texts in the style of the Han Kitab volumes. The complete incorporation of Arabic into Sino-Islamic scholarship illustrates the importance of the language for Sino-Muslims who were beginning to engage in broader discussions happening among their Arabic-speaking co-religionists during the nineteenth century. While Ma does not explicitly state any global objective of participation, by introducing his readers to recurring Islamic debates directly in Arabic and illustrating the practical use of Arabic language, his writings prepared readers to broach Islam from a more universal perspective. His literary mastery of several Islamic sciences, which are expressed through his Arabic compositions, in combination with the transformative experience of his extended time abroad, served as an engaged model for Sino-Muslims. His success was confirmed by the continuation of this Arabic discourse which was maintained by his followers, especially his spiritual disciple Ma Lianyuan 馬聯元 (1841–1903), into the twentieth century.Footnote 24
Ma Dexin was a cosmopolitan Muslim who was well aware of the shifting global reunification of the broader Muslim community during the mid-nineteenth century. His travels enabled him to witness the changing dynamics within the religious community and the rising importance of Arabic as a means for accessing Islamic knowledge and joining in contemporary debates.Footnote 25 Ma increasingly employed Arabic as a means for discussing Islam while simultaneously writing in Chinese, often having his texts translated into the other language. This variation in Sino-Islamic compositional routine accentuates an ideological departure from the Sinic culture that continued to dominate Han Kitab scholarly activity through the 1800s. Ma envisioned Arabic as a tool for Sino-Muslims to engage the Muslim community in both lived physical realities and in theological literary debates. Through greater contact and communication with Muslims throughout the globe, Sino-Muslims were able to participate in dialogue primarily through their acquaintance with Arabic. Thus, Sino-Islamic scholarship of the Han Kitab began to cooperate in the perceived orthodox Islamic intellectual tradition by reintroducing this Arabic discursive framework.
Ma Dexin's works included the translation, transliteration, and inclusion of complex vocabulary from the Arabic Islamic tradition. Many of Ma's Arabic texts expressed Islam using the same terminology and sources as popular Arabic texts from the Middle East, providing first-hand knowledge of Arabic Islamic discourse. The recurring inclusion of Arabic within Chinese texts indicates that Ma's Sino-Muslim audience was eager and prepared to embrace Arabic resources.Footnote 26 It is evident that Ma encountered readers who anticipated a linguistic register that included Arabic terminology. However, Ma's repeated use of Arabic as the central language for writing texts illustrates that his students were becoming well versed in Arabic religious discourses. For Ma, Arabic served as the link between divergent linguistic and cultural Muslim communities both theologically and pragmatically and provided Sino-Muslims with tools for accessing an authoritative literary tradition for understanding Islam. Ma's elevation of Arabic signalled a repositioning of linguistic authority in Sino-Islamic discourse. Arabic now served as the means for accessing Islamic authority and engaging in religious understanding. Ma's calculated inculcation of Arabic proficiency led to the presumption that this linguistic facility would serve as the basis of sustained intellectual engagement in a larger community of discourse. This linguistic revision also situated Sino-Islamic thought within a historically articulated interpretive tradition and symbolically linked it to a perceived authoritative Islamic perspective more generally. Therefore, while Ma's Arabic teachings readied Sino-Muslims for inclusion in early modern religious dialogues, it also elevated their social and intellectual status as authoritative scholars within their local setting.
Inclusion and transliteration
Many of Ma Dexin's Chinese texts echoed the methods employed by his predecessors by including transliterations of numerous Arabic terms, names, and places.Footnote 27 However, his writings expose Ma's instructive intentions because, unlike his predecessors, he includes the Arabic for each of these items in a number of works. The didactic nature of these insertions demonstrates that Ma wrote as a teacher who was trying to enable his readers to grasp the complexities of the Arabic language within a natural and familiar setting—the Chinese text. In a number of works, including Opening Love for Ritual and Law (Lifa Qi'ai 禮法啟愛), Precious Instructions from the Veritable Records (Shilu Baoshun 實錄寶訓), and especially in Record of the Pilgrimage Journey (Chaojin Tuji 朝覲途記), Ma repeated the same pattern when using Arabic words. Within these Chinese treatises he would first write the Arabic, followed by the transliteration of the term, in this manner: ziyāra/jiyalei 擠呀勒, ‘Arafāt/erleifate 爾勒法特, salām/seluemu 色略母, Muḥammad al-Būṣīrī/muhamode busuili 母哈默德補雖里, al-Shāfi‘ī/shafeier 沙菲爾. This procedure provided Sino-Muslim readers with the original Arabic script, which would simultaneously reinforce their practical knowledge of the language and their discursive understanding of its meaning. The pedagogical objective became unambiguous as the reader encountered reoccurring words, as Ma repeated this method and continuously provided the Arabic text—in Precious Instructions from the Veritable Records, for example, Ma always wrote ‘Ādam/adan 阿丹 for Adam. Placing Arabic within the context of the Chinese text moved beyond the aural recollection that was evoked by transliteration alone and added the written forms for visual recognition.
This inclusion also indicates that his readers were capable of reading Arabic, at least in a very basic fashion. The texts in which Ma used this method were also instructive or informational treatises; his more philosophical works either did not include Arabic or were written entirely in Arabic. This may indicate that these specific works—a primer on prayer, a prophetic genealogy, and hajj diary—were intended for a more general audience than his other works, which were possibly written for more advanced readers who had command of Arabic or knowledge of classical Chinese philosophical concepts. Overall, the repeated inclusion of Arabic terms alongside their Chinese transliteration signals that many of his readers were familiar with written Arabic and would appreciate their inclusion.
Describing discourse
One of Ma's most important contributions to Sino-Islamic intellectual development was the reintroduction of Arabic as a practical discursive language. Prior to this period Arabic was overshadowed by the Persian literary tradition and was seldom used outside of ritual observances.Footnote 28 Ma wrote a number of works solely in Arabic for various purposes, such as The Story of Adam (Qiṣat ‘Ādam), Secrets of the Return (Asrār al-Ma'ād), Lies of the Christians (Akādhīb al-Naṣāra), Yearning (Mushtāq), Stimuli (Munabihāt), Complete (Kāmil), The Definite (al-Muhkam), Verification of Prayer (Taḥqīq al-Ṣalāt), Logic (Manṭiq), Consistent Grammar (al-Naḥw al-Mutasiq), Consistent Morphology (al-Ṣarf al-Mutasiq), and Islamic Admonitions (al-Naṣā‘iḥ al-Islāmiyya).Footnote 29 The diverse subject matter indicates that Ma hoped his readers and students would be able to advance their knowledge of Islam in its mother language regardless of their intellectual interests. These works enabled Muslims to engage with the broader Arabic Islamic literary tradition by providing them with the linguistic apparatus for complex discussion and debate.
One of the most basic but essential features of Arabic Islamic texts is their opening invocation, the bismala. The Qur'an repeatedly begins chapters with the declaration ‘In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful’ and most written works throughout Islamic history have followed this pattern. Ma's texts are no different from those of his co-religionists. He began Description of the World, Sources of the Islamic Calendar, A Breviary of Ritual and Prayer (Lifa Jiejing 禮法捷徑), Translation of the Five Chapters of the Root Scripture (Benjing wuzhang yijie 本經五章譯解), and Folding the Inner Feelings through the Study of Principle (Lixue Zhezhong 理學折衷) with bismala. In each of these examples the bismala is written in raised Ṣīnī style calligraphy.Footnote 30
As mentioned earlier, many Muslims invoke the bismala whenever they do something of worth. The visual admiration for the bismala and the literary replication of this tradition in Ma's texts demonstrate that he held the bismala in high regard. This simple act of duplicating this prefatory remark carried great theological merit and reflects the continued efforts to communicate authoritative discursive processes.
Ma employed Arabic in a variety of discursive settings but one of the most lasting was in advanced theological treatises, including, most notably, Lixue Zhezhong. The text is intended to introduce Ma's readers to a variety of theological opinions and a specific literary discourse that is employed in Arabic Islamic thought. This process begins with the opening passages. Ma started Lixue Zhezhong in a traditional manner with reverence for God:
Praise be to God, the Most High,Footnote 31 the Majestic,Footnote 32 the Generous,Footnote 33 the Protector,Footnote 34 the Beautiful, the Holy One being free from obstruction, the Promenade exceeding in glory, the Exemplification, the Invitation, and the Source of Peace upon its emanations. By the most perfect revelation, with the perfection of the most beautiful, and upon his family and the companions who have reached their destination. By pursuing towards the conclusion of their high predilection is the following treatise.Footnote 35
From the beginning of his treatise Ma employed terminology and wrote in a manner that would be familiar to Arabic readers anywhere. For example, he used several of the 99 names of God (al-ʾasmāʾ al-ḥusnā), which are repeatedly used to honour God in His various attributes in Islamic texts throughout history.Footnote 36 This opening passage also mirrored the passionate oaths found in many of verses of the Qur'an.Footnote 37 In testifying to the veracity of his writings, he swore by the inspiration of the Qur'an, the perfected model of Muhammad, his descendants, and his closest companions. This general schema was replicated in Ma's other key Arabic theological text, Translation of the Five Chapters, where he begins by saying, ‘Praises due to God, lord of the worlds.’Footnote 38 This phrase is uttered by millions of Muslims during each prayer as part of the recitation of the opening chapter of the Qur'an, sūrat al-fātiḥa. He also continued his reverence for the Prophet Muhammad and those associated with him, ‘And peace be upon the messenger Muhammad and his family and companions.’Footnote 39 In these remarks Ma offered various models for understanding traditional praises and affirmations of the Islamic tradition and its sources.
Throughout these texts Ma developed detailed explanations of the cosmos and the unfolding of creation using technical Arabic terminology from traditional discourses. In Lixue Zhezhong, for example, he sketched an outline of the complex relationship between God and His creation. In trying to explain the true nature of this association, he described the various ways in which one can understand God while remaining aware of the possible misunderstandings. He suggested:
Almighty God is sometimes necessary (wājib), sometimes possible (mumkin), sometimes eternal (qadīm), sometimes newly arrived (ḥādath), sometimes Creator (khāliq), sometimes created (makhluq). For in here, it is possible to stray from the path of God's unity (tawhīd).Footnote 40
These interpretations depend on the perspective from which one views the relationship between God and creation. Ma developed God's role further: ‘He is its [creation] quintessence (‘ayn) because of His impression. . . Surely, God is the donor for the creature (makhlūq).’Footnote 41 When viewed from the perspective of creation, the creatures are utterly reliant on God for their contingent existence. Ma expanded this notion: ‘Almighty God is an eternal (qadīm) necessity (wājib) and the world is a possible (mumkin) new arrival (ḥādath).’Footnote 42 Creation is only a possibility and is totally dependent on God for its existence. When viewed from the perspective of God, creation is the manifestation of His actualized qualities. Ma clarified this relationship:
He [God] says to them the world is the manifestation of the Real (al-ḥaqq), and the Real is the hidden (bātin) of the world. He says to them before manifestation the world is the quintessence of God, and after manifestation the Real is the quintessence of the world. This impression that God, glorious is He, is the substance of the world and the world is His image, it means that God distinguishes and differentiates and turned towards existence (mawjūd) but is intrinsically different.Footnote 43
Here we see that God is clearly distinguished from creation while being innately tied to it and the foundation of it. This description of creation needs to be understood in relation to God's essence (dhāt) and His attributes (ṣifāt). Through revelation and the signs of creation, God unveils Himself to His creation. However, God does not manifest His essence, which is eternally unknowable in and of itself. Ma explained: ‘It is not the Essence of God, the Holy, that turns towards bodies of existents (mawjūdāt) because the unified Essence is not ever manifested.’Footnote 44Al-ḥaqq is the foundation for creation because it provides creation with its appropriate position in the cosmos and clothes the creatures with their correct mode of being.Footnote 45 However, the reality of al-ḥaqq is never detectable apart from in the things themselves. Therefore, as Ma insisted, ‘Verily, the essence of the Real is the essences of the things.’Footnote 46
Ma's discussion reflected ongoing conversations about the nature of the cosmos throughout history. Overall, creation is the manifestation of God's attributes (ṣifāt), thus, making Him knowable, while His eternal essence (dhāt) remains unknowable from the human perspective. The debate about the relationship between God and creation is highly complex and technical. What we can gather from Ma's presentation is that he was well versed in traditional fields of theology and philosophy and wanted to make that knowledge available to the Sino-Muslim audience who were able to read Arabic. His texts provided a clear explanation of this sophisticated discourse using normative technical vocabulary, which had been employed by authoritative Muslim authors over time, such as al-Kindī (d. circa 866), al-Fārābī (d. 950), al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), Suhrawardī (d. 1191), Fakr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1209), Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 1240), Nāṣir al-Ṭūsī (d, 1273), Ibn Sīnā (d. 1307), and Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1641), among numerous others. Ma adapted his explanation from these earlier figures and presented it in a coherent and approachable manner. For the Sino-Muslim audience, these Arabic texts on metaphysics further reinforced their theological understanding of the tradition and their linguistic capacity for further examination. They gained a linguistic toolbox from these works, which could be mastered and replicated in new interpretive frameworks.
Altogether, Arabic became more prominent over time because the disparate local communities of the global Muslim population were establishing greater contact and communication. Throughout his travels Ma Dexin experienced this reality first hand, which influenced how he presented his work to the Sino-Muslim community. He saw that Arabic acted as a unifying principle between divergent linguistic and cultural Muslim communities both theologically and pragmatically. It bound them together as a unified group of believers and tied them to an authoritative tradition. Arabic served as a means for social and religious positioning through the posturing of Sino-Islamic discursive models and linguistic revision. Sino-Islamic scholarship joined a perceived orthodox Islamic intellectual tradition through the use of an established discursive framework when employing Arabic. The use of language legitimized Sino-Muslims’ religious authority because Arabization and Islamization were inseparable parts of a single religious ideal. There were various social and religious layers of meaning and symbolic values intertwined with the employment of Arabic. Sino-Muslim authors became custodians of a 1,400-year-old intellectual heritage by using Arabic and promoting a specific discursive trajectory. This made them innovatively traditional in their worldview by simultaneously incorporating their Chinese and Islamic legacies in order to situate themselves in a modern globalizing world.
Maintaining the inheritance
Despite the evident benefits and advantages of mastering Arabic as a means of participation in a global Muslim community, Ma did not outline this as an explicit objective. However, it is clear that he valued Arabic as a crucial linguistic instrument for gaining Islamic knowledge which was not accessible through Chinese language alone. When we look at Ma's collective contribution, it does become clear that his efforts towards linguistic dexterity and religious mobility were aimed at better situating Sino-Muslims in a globally networked world. Ma witnessed first hand the rewards of interacting with co-religionists in intellectual and communal settings and encouraged his students to go abroad. Advanced knowledge of Arabic was not only a means for basic communication on these journeys but also a venue for forging webs of transformative learning processes created through universal Muslim dialogues. Discursive proficiency enabled Sino-Muslims to navigate complex systems of thought and lived practice, thus providing the foundation for personal experiential growth.
One of the most conclusive signs that indicated the new prominence of Arabic after Ma Dexin reintroduced it was the replication and reproduction of Arabic discursive patterns by Ma's direct students. Therefore, despite Ma's intentionality when emphasizing Arabic in Sino-Islamic intellectual discourses, his disciples continued to concentrate on the language and they employed it as a means of engaging in broader international Muslim discourses in both literary and lived environments. The most revealing examples of Ma's influence on later generations of Sino-Muslims is seen in his foremost intellectual inheritor, Ma Lianyuan 馬聯元 (1841–1903). He embraced Ma Dexin's model of simultaneously combining the local conservation of Chinese language interpretations of Islam with a concerted return to Arabic Islamic sources, by both consuming and producing them. For Ma Lianyuan, Arabic served as a tool to engage the local and global Muslim communities through the transmission and transference of Islamic knowledge, and as a foundation for connecting with global networks of Islamic education.
Ma Lianyuan primarily wrote pedagogical texts, which were almost exclusively penned in Arabic, aimed at shaping the growing institutionalization of Islamic education in southwest China. He travelled widely throughout the Muslim world, made the pilgrimage on two occasions, and spent years studying with masters in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The role of Arabic in shaping Ma Lianyuan's Islamic identity and its importance in establishing his religious knowledge is identifiable from one's first introduction to him. Ma Lianyuan referred to himself by his Arabic name in his texts: ‘Abd al-Hakīm al-Ḥajj al-Sayyid Muḥammad Nūr al-Ḥaqq ibn al-Sayyid Luqmān al-Ṣīnī’. The name immediately situated Ma Lianyuan in a family lineage of Islamic scholars, ‘The Servant of the Wise, the person who has gone on pilgrimage to Mecca, the Sayyid [descendant of the Prophet], Muḥammad, the Light of the Real, the son of Sayyid, Luqmān, of China.’Footnote 47 Arabic also enabled Ma Lianyuan to travel and study in various places, using Arabic as a way to communicate, despite local linguistic diversity. During his pilgrimage Ma Lianyuan used Ma Dexin's Record of a Pilgrimage Journey as a guide. Throughout his years abroad he studied with several well-known scholars, such as Raḥmatullāh Ibn Khalīl al-‘Uthmānī al-Kairānawī (1818–1891) in India. Arabic provided Ma Lianyuan with the linguistic tools and discursive ability to engage with Islamic scholars abroad. His success in these endeavours among the global Muslim community is compelling evidence for demonstrating Ma Dexin's success in reintroducing Arabic.
Ma Lianyuan's engagement with Arabic is also evident from the numerous texts he wrote: of his more than 20 works, only three were written in Chinese; the remainder were primarily in Arabic and some in Persian. He came from a long lineage of Islamic scholars originating from Central Asia. He studied under his father as a child and by the age of 20 he had mastered Chinese, Arabic, and Persian languages. Ma Lianyuan took over as the leader of the Muslim community in Hexi from his ageing father. At that point Ma Lianyuan focused his attention on reworking institutional religious instruction. We can recognize these instructional goals from the types of texts he wrote. Ma Lianyuan's efforts were all focused towards promoting a greater understanding of Arabic language and primary knowledge of scriptural resources and practices, which were chiefly centred on linguistic skills, introduction to basic practices, and the preservation and dissemination of the Qur'an.
Ma Lianyuan's initial goal was to teach basic linguistic skills that would enable his students to access Arabic works. This emphasis on grammar is seen in his Arabic texts, such as First Rules of Character Methodology (Zifa chucheng 字法初程), A Summary of Character Methodology (Zifa cuoyao 字法撮要), and First Rules of Arabic Grammar (Tianfang wenfa chucheng 天方文法初程).Footnote 48 These works reflect the direct goals of his teaching initiatives which revolved around the use of Arabic. The second group of works focused on enhancing fundamental understandings of the core teachings and scriptures of Islam. Ma wrote Arabic instructional materials introducing basic practices: The Islamic Divisions of Faith (Tianfang fenxin bian 天方分信篇); reproductions of important hadith in Arabic: Treasured Saying of the Utmost Sage (Zhisheng baoyu 至聖寶諭); and produced a reader of Qur'anic passages in Arabic: Interpretation of Qur'anic Verses (Haiting Jieyi 孩聽解譯). His aspiration to advance Sino-Muslim knowledge of primary scriptures is also demonstrated by his efforts to assemble a complete wood-block print edition of the Qur'an. Ma Lianyuan presided over this project and after three years the hand calligraphed block-print edition was published.Footnote 49
Numerous students used these works in the newly structured educational system that Ma Lianyuan implemented during the same period in which he composed theological treatises for more advanced readers. The most celebrated of these was Sublime Words on Nature and Principle (Xingli weiyan 性理微言), or Subtleties (Laṭā’if) as it was entitled in Arabic.Footnote 50 This work is especially interesting because the Laṭā’if is actually Ma Lianyuan's translation of Liu Zhi's Root Scripture (Benjing本經), the prolegomenon to his magnum opus, the Metaphysics of Islam (Tianfang xingli 天方性理). The Root Scripture is a summary of the main elements of the Tianfang xingli presented in a succinct and poetic manner. Ma Lianyuan's decision to translate the Root Scripture into Arabic demonstrates that he highly valued the Sino-Islamic tradition of his predecessors, despite not following their literary style or covering similar intellectual content in his own writings. It also shows that he believed Liu's representation of Islamic theology was exemplary and worthy of a wider distribution outside of the Chinese speaking community.
The translation also served as another text that enabled Sino-Muslims to become familiar with complex Arabic Islamic discourses that would be used abroad. Having access to a widely available and regularly read Chinese source in Arabic translation made the complicated Arabic literary setting more accessible. A cross analysis of the two texts in Chinese and Arabic supported the continued interpretation and understanding of technical terminology. To further develop an understanding of these key texts Ma Lianyuan also wrote his own commentary on his translation, Commentary on the Subtleties (Sharḥ al-laṭā’if).
From Ma Lianyuan's contribution we can see that at the dawn of the twentieth century Sino-Muslims used Arabic and participated in its evolution in order to understand their own literary tradition in relation to larger Islamic discourses. While the majority of Ma Lianyuan's works were in Arabic, he also aimed to circulate the religious heritage of his Chinese co-religionists among the broader non-Chinese speaking world. His translations of early Sino-Islamic works into Arabic and his commentary on them are clear evidence for the conscious inclusion of Sino-Muslims in the global Muslim world.
Ma Dexin instituted an authoritative linguistic discourse that fostered wider participation by Sino-Muslims in a global world where Arabic could be used as a lingua franca. His audience was eager and able to exercise their social and intellectual authority through the act of writing and reading in Arabic. Ma Lianyuan derived his distinctive perspectives on the authority, uses, and role of Arabic from Ma Dexin's dynamic integrated approach to the Islamic tradition. His continued engagement with the Arabic Islamic tradition is persuasive evidence that Ma Dexin played an instrumental part in instituting a new discursive environment in the Chinese setting. It is evident that Ma Lianyuan was responsive to this new discourse and his attempts to facilitate dialogue with the broader Muslim community in his own work reveals the effects of Ma Dexin's guidance on his students. Further, the diglossic nature of Ma Dexin's works imbued symbolic meaning from various authoritative traditions to his readers, which underlined the rich contributions of both their Muslim and Chinese forefathers. The methods Ma Dexin employed—inclusion of Arabic terminology, translations of Arabic works into Chinese, authentic Arabic theological discourse—all urged readers and students to reproduce traditional Islamic linguistic and thematic patterns in their understanding of Islam. This advocacy for intimate knowledge of Arabic Islamic discourse derives from Ma Dexin's expectations of his students, which anticipate the increased contact between Sino-Muslims and their Muslim neighbours throughout the world.
Ma Dexin embodied a major shift in Sino-Muslim intellectual activity and religious education. He emphasized the importance of greater knowledge of Arabic and transnational travel as a result of his own transformative experiences abroad. Together, discursive literacy, linguistic capability, and direct personal engagement enabled Sino-Muslims to participate in an authoritative community of discourse. His example served as the pattern for modern Sino-Muslim scholars, which revolved around engagement with the Arabic Islamic literary tradition, actualized through transnational travel. Ultimately, Ma's efforts contributed to the emergence of inter-Asian religious learning and the burgeoning of intellectual exchange among Sino-Muslims and their co-religionists abroad.
