A Hui, Ma was born on 23 September 1869 in Daohe, now part of Linxia, Gansu, China.

Ma Haiyan defeated the foreign army at the Battle of Langfang in 1900, and died while protecting the Imperial Family from the western forces.

Ma Qi was 6 feet (183 cm) tall and maintained the mintuan militia in Xining as his personal army, called the Ninghaijun.

[3][4] Ma Anliang, Changgeng and Shengyun failed to capture Shaanxi from the revolutionaries.

[5] Unlike the Mongols and Tibetans, the Muslims refused to secede from the Republic, and Ma Qi quickly used his diplomatic and military powers to make the Tibetan and Mongol nobles recognize the Republic of China government as their overlord, and sent a message to President Yuan Shikai reaffirming that Qinghai was securely in the Republic.

[6] Ma Qi developed relations with Wu Peifu, who tried to turn Gansu military leaders against Feng Yuxiang.

In 1921 he and his Muslim army decisively crushed the Tibetan monks of Labrang monastery when they tried to oppose him.

Ma Qi responded with 3,000 Chinese Muslim troops, who retook Labrang and machine-gunned thousands of Tibetan monks as they tried to flee.