page_title: Linxia City
section_title: The Muslim Minorities Rebellion and War
hierarchical_section_title: Linxia City / History / The Muslim Minorities Rebellion and War
caption_attribution_description: English: Two Hui book vendors, wearing traditional eyeglasses characteristic for the area, in a Linxia City market
context_page_description: Linxia City, once known as Hezhou, is a county-level city in the province of Gansu of the People's Republic of China and the capital of the multi-ethnic Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. It is located in the valley of the Daxia River, 150 km southwest of the provincial capital Lanzhou.
  The population of the entire county-level city of Linxia is estimated at 250,000; of which, 58.4% is classified as urban population. According to the prefectural government, 51.4% of Linxia City's population belongs to the "Hui nationality", i.e. the Chinese-speaking Muslims. Some members of Linxia Prefecture other minority ethnic groups, such as Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar, live in the city.
  For centuries, Hezhou/Linxia has been one of the main religious, cultural and commercial centers of China's Muslim community, earning itself the nickname of "the little Mecca of China".
  In the words of the ethnologist Dru Gladney, "Almost every major Islamic movement in China finds its origin among Muslims who came to Linxia disseminating new doctrines after pilgrimage to Middle Eastern Islamic centers".
context_section_description: Soon after the beginning of the Massive Muslim Armed Rebellion in Northwestern China in 1862, Hezhou became one of the main strongholds of the Muslim rebels who fought against Qing Dynasty and killed many non-Muslim Han and Manchu people in Northwestern China. The leader of the rebellion in the Hezhou region was Ma Zhan'ao, the leader of the Hezhou-based Huasi menhuan, a Khufiyya Sufi order founded over a century before by Ma Laichi. His top lieutenants were  Ma Haiyan and Ma Qianling. A pragmatic leader, Ma Zhan'ao apparently preferred to avoid unnecessary bloodshed; soon after seizing the city, he made an effort to enable the Qing officials to flee the rebel city with whatever assets they could carry.
  By late 1872, Qing armies led by general Zuo Zongtang had destroyed the Hui rebels in the regions to the east of Hezhou (Shaanxi and Ningxia), and reached the Tao River, separating today's Linxia Prefecture from its eastern neighbor, Dingxi. Zuo's attempts to gain a foothold west of the Tao River were stymied by Ma Zhan'ao's Muslim fighters. But Ma realized that he could not hold against the Qing armies forever, and in early 1873 he sent his son, who was soon to become known as Ma Anliang, to Zuo's headquarters in Anding to negotiate switching sides. Pursuant to the agreement, Ma Zhan'ao surrendered Hezhou to the government forces, executed those locals who objected to the surrender, and joined the government side himself, to fight against the rebels farther west. In exchange, Zuo Zongtang treated the Hezhou Muslim community much better than he had the people of Ma Hualong's Jinjipu, or than he would treat the defenders of Suzhou later this year. 
  The Hezhou Muslims were spared a massacre or a relocation to a remote region; instead, in a unique gesture during that war, Zuo acted to reduce the inter-communal tension by relocating some of the local non-Muslim Han people away from the Muslims. Nonetheless, in order to ensure the government's control over the region, the  Muslims were prohibited to live within the city walls of Hezhou. For many decades thereafter, the walled city remained the non-Muslim Han territory, with its mosques converted to Buddhist temples, while the Hui Muslims lived and built their mosques outside of the city walls, in particular in the southern suburb of Bafang.
  Ma Zhan'ao himself went to fight along with Zuo Zongtang against the Muslim rebels farther west. For his efforts (and on Zuo's request), Ma was later rewarded by the "feathered cap of the fifth rank" (花翎五品顶戴); his and his lieutenants' descendants went to play an important role in the region's history for decades to come.
caption: Two Hui book vendors at a Linxia City market, wearing traditional eyeglasses
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