Sultanate of Banten

Sultanate of Banten
Kasultanan Banten
1527–1813
Flag Coat of arms
Rough extent of Banten at the death of Hasanudin, controlling both sides of Sunda Strait
Capital		Old Banten, Serang
Languages		Sundanese, Banten, Javanese, Lampung
Religion		Islam
Government		Sultanate
Sultan
•	1552–1570 ¹	Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin
•	1651–1683	Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa
•	1809–1813	Sultan Maulana Muhammad Shafiuddin
•	2016–now	Sultan Syarif Muhammad ash-Shafiuddin
History
•	invasion of kingdom of Sunda	1527
•	annexation by Dutch East Indies	1813
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Sunda Sultanate of Cirebon Dutch East Indies Bantam Presidency
Today part of		Indonesia
¹ (1527–1552 as a province under Sultanate of Cirebon)

The Banten Sultanate was founded in the 16th century and centred in Banten, a port city on the northwest coast of Java; the contemporary English spelling of both was Bantam. It is said to have been founded by Sunan Gunungjati, who had previously founded Cirebon.

Once a great trading centre in Southeast Asia, especially of pepper, its importance was overshadowed by Batavia, and finally annexed to Dutch East Indies in 1813. Its core territory now forms the Indonesian province of Banten. Today, in Old Banten, the Grand Mosque of Banten is an important destination for tourists and for pilgrims from across Indonesia and from overseas.

Before 1526 CE, a settlement called Banten was situated about ten kilometres inland from the coast on the Cibanten River, in the area which is today occupied by the southern suburbs of the town of Serang. It was known as Banten Girang, meaning "Banten-up-the-river" owing to its location.

Sunan Gunungjati (Sharif Hidayatullah) was an "ulama", an educated class of Muslim legal scholars. He was educated in Middle East, and can trace his ancestry to the Kingdom of Sunda. Sharif Hidayatullah become the Sultan of Cirebon in 1479. In 1482 Sharif Hidayatullah sent a letter to King of Sunda, proclaiming Cirebon independence from Sunda Pajajaran. Previously Cirebon settlement was founded in 1445 by his uncle Prince Cakrabuana. In the early 16th century, Gunungjati arrived in the town with the intention of spreading the word of Islam in this still-Hindu area.

According to Suma Oriental, written in 1512–1515, Tomé Pires, a Portuguese explorer report that the port of Banten was still belongs to the Kingdom of Sunda, while Cirebon has been established as an Islamic state.