A Brief History of USNB

Syeikh Nawawi Banten University (USNB) is one of the Islamic higher education institutions in Indonesia under the supervision of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.

The university originated from the Syeikh Nawawi College of Islamic Jurisprudence (Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Fiqih Syeikh Nawawi Tanara Banten), established in 2016, and was officially transformed into a university in 2023.

The university is named after the great Bantenese scholar, Syeikh Nawawi al-Bantani, whose works have gained worldwide recognition.
Syeikh Nawawi al-Bantani (1813–1897 CE) was a distinguished Islamic scholar born in Tanara, Serang, Banten. His scholarly contributions cover a wide range of disciplines, including theology (tauhid), Islamic jurisprudence (fiqih), Sufism (tasawuf), and Qur’anic exegesis (tafsir). To this day, his works continue to be studied in Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and esteemed universities such as Al-Azhar University in Egypt.

Prof. Dr. K.H. Ma'ruf Amin, the founder of USNB and the caretaker of An-Nawawi Islamic Boarding School (Pesantren An-Nawawi Tanara), has long admired Syeikh Nawawi’s profound scholarship. He recognized the importance of continuing and developing the intellectual tradition inherited from Syeikh Nawawi, particularly in the field of Islamic jurisprudence.