include index

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-260) and index.

Porridge, piety, and patience: Qur'anic schooling in northern Nigeria -- Fair game for unfair accusations? Discourses about Qur'anic students -- 'Secular schooling is schooling for the rich!' : inequality and educational change in northern Nigeria -- Peasants, privations, and piousness : how boys become Qur'anic students -- Inequality at close range : domestic service for the better-off -- Concealment, asceticism, and cunning Americans : how to deal with being poor -- Mango medicine and morality : pursuing a respectable position within society -- Spiritual security services in an insecure setting : Kano's 'prayer economy' -- Roles, risks, and reproduction : what almajiri education implies for society and for the future -- Annex: Synopsis of 'Duniya Juyi Juyi--How Life Goes'.

In a global context of widespread fears over Islamic radicalisation and militancy, poor Muslim youth, especially those socialised in religious seminaries, have attracted overwhelmingly negative attention. In northern Nigeria, male Qur'anic students have garnered a reputation of resorting to violence in order to claim their share of highly unequally distributed resources. Drawing on material from long-term ethnographic and participatory fieldwork among Qur'anic students and their communities, this book offers an alternative perspective on youth, faith, and poverty.