By the 19th century, the majority of Indonesian scholars that study and even teach in Mecca were of Banten origin; such as Sheikh Nawawi al-Bantani, the teacher of Arsyad Thawil al-Bantani. He was a native of Tanara that wrote several works in Arabic and taught as a professor in Mecca and became the imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca. This religious prestige has made Banten – together with Aceh, a sense of belonging within the larger Islamic ummah, and made the kingdom as one of the prominent Islamic polity in the archipelago.