Madura Island
He is of Madurese descent, born in Sampang, a regency on Madura Island. Mahfud holds a master's degree in political science and a doctorate in constitutional law (1993) from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. Since 1984, he has also been a professor of constitutional law at the faculty of law at the Islamic University of Indonesia (UII) in Yogyakarta. He has also taught in a number of other universities in Indonesia.