A Chinese Sultan

In Dali City in western Yunnan China, an independent kingdom was established by Du Wenxiu (1823–1872) who was born in Yongchang to a Han Chinese family, which had converted to Islam.

In 1856, a massacre of Muslims organized by a Qing Manchu official responsible for suppressing the revolt in the provincial capital of Kunming sparked a province-wide multi-ethnic insurgency.

Discrimination by China's imperial administration against the Hui caused their rebellions. The Panthay rebellion (1856–1873), known to Chinese as the Du Wenxiu Rebellion was a rebellion of the Muslim Hui people and other (non-Muslim) ethnic minorities against the Manchu rulers of the Qing Dynasty in southwestern Yunnan Province, as part of a wave of Hui-led multi-ethnic unrest.

The revolt was not religious in nature, since the Muslims were joined by non-Muslim Shan and Kakhyen and other hill tribes. A British officer testified that the Muslims did not rebel for religious reasons, and that the Chinese were tolerant of different religions and were unlikely to have caused the revolt by interfering with the practicing of Islam. In addition, loyalist Muslim forces helped Qing crush the rebel Muslims.

Du Wenxiu (Chinese: 杜文秀: 1823 to 1872) was the Chinese Muslim leader of the Panthay Rebellion, an anti-Qing revolt in China during the Qing dynasty. Du had Han Chinese ancestry. Born in Yongchang (now Baoshan, Yunnan), Du Wenxiu was the son of a Han Chinese who converted to Islam. His original name was Yang Xiu.

Du Wenxiu was the "Sultan of Dali" (Sultan Sulayman Ibnu Abdul Rahman) and reigned for 16 years. Du Wenxiu wore Chinese clothing and mandated the use of the Arabic language in his regime. Du also banned pork. Tribal pagan animism, Confucianism, and Islam were all legalized and "honoured" with a "Chinese-style bureaucracy" in Du Wenxiu's Sultanate.

One of the Muslim generals, Ma Julung, was defeated by the Qing army. General Ma Rulong, who surrendered and joined the Qing Dynasty, helped to crush the rebel Muslims.

Wallahu'alam
ref: Sultan berbangsa Cina oleh Afzan Yusuf
ref: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics, Volume 8
ref: Revolution and its past: identities and change in modern Chinese history