Founder: Family & Educational Background

v  The founder of Persyarikatan Ulama’ is Hadji Abdul Halim.

v  His original name is Otong Syatori.

v  He was born on 26th June 1887 in Majalengka, West Java.

v  He came from a religious family.

v  His father is KH Muhammad Iskandar (penghulu of Jatiwangi) and his mother is Siti Mutmainah binti Imam Safari.

v  He was a fatherless since his childhood.

v  Halim was grown up under his mother supervision.

v  At the age of ten, he was sent by his mother to study Al-Qur’an to a popular Kyai (religious Islamic scholar) in Cideres.

v  When he was in Cideres, Syatori not only studied al-Qur'an, but also learnt reading and writing Latin words as well as Dutch to a Christian Pastor, Verhoeven.

v  Since the age eleven, Syatori started to deeply learn Islamic religion from pesantren (Islamic boarding school) to another pesantren.

v  When he turned twenty-one years old, his mother called him to come back to his hometown Jatiwangi, Majalengka.

v  When he arrived in Jatiwangi, he married with Siti Murbijah. Murbijah was the last daughter of Muhammad Ilyas, Penghulu Landraad in Majalengka.

v  In 1908, Syatori went to Mecca for pilgrimage as well as continued his study there. He exposed to the idea of Jamaludin Al-Afghani & Muhammad Abduh.

v  His education periods in Mecca are the same time with his friends from Sumatera such as Mas Mansur, Abdul Wahab, Sanoesi, and others. They studied to the same teachers.

v  Among Syatori’s teachers in Mecca are Ahmad Khatib and Ahmad Khayyat. Besides these two popular teachers, Syatori also mentioned other religious teachers such as Syakib Arslan and Tanthawi Jauhari. Syatori studied in Mecca for three years.

v  K.H. Abdul Halim impressed with 2 modern educational institutions: Bab-al Salam near Mecca & another in Jedda. Both of these educational institutions have abolished the halaqah system and changed it to the modern classes & curricular equipped with chairs & desks.

v  He was fetched by his family in 1911. When he returned back to Indonesia, he has never used his name, Otong Syatori, but he changed his name by Abdul Halim until he passed away.