themselves from this point on as Muslims. In 1863 Ma Dexin declared himself "King-Who-Pacifies-the-South (Pingnan Wang)", seized the official seals & stopped using the Qing reign year when dating documents. Ma Dexin hoped to keep the rebel forces united under him until he could hand over control to Du Wenxiu. Ma Rulong immediately rushed back to Kunming, He was rebuked by his followers who told him that "If you only crave to be an official with no thought for your fellow Muslims, you should return to [your home in] Guanyi." Ma Rulong attacked the city along with Qing forces; ordered Ma Dexin to give up his seals of office & placed him under house arrest. Ma Dexin also opposed Ma Rulong's acceptance of the Qing policy of "using Hui to fight other Hui". Ma Dexin was sent to convince Du Wenxiu to surrender in 1864. He was sympathetic to Du's cause but saw no point in continuing to resist anymore. He told Du that the Hui must not fall into the trap of the Qing & that with the end of the Taipeng rebellion the Qing would bring their full force to bear to crush the Hui. Du refused to surrender instead he offered Ma Dexin a position in his government. Policies of Du Wenxiu's Dali sultanate After Du Wenxiu became leader of the new state based in Dali; he ordered the repairing of the city's main mosque & the construction of 5 new mosques. To revitalize Islamic education in Yunnan Du Wenxiu established Islamic Madrassas, promoted the use of the Arabic language among the Hui & printed the first copy of the Quran in China. The Sultanate's bureaucracy employed Arabic as the preferred language for communication among the Hui elite and the preferred language for foreign diplomatic relations. When the first British envoys arrived in Yunnan from Burma they were presented with documents entirely in Arabic and had to wait several days for it to be translated into Chinese. Instead of wearing queues as mandated by the Qing the male subjects of Sultanate let their hair grow long. And the Qing referred to the rebels as "long-haired rebels (changfa Huijei)". The Dali regime used White Banners. A state proclamation sent to the Muslims of Lhasa in the early 1860s (by way of Hui caravan traders) justified the rebellion as a righteous response to treachery by idolaters. The declaration was