This collection brings together experts interested in adding nuance and historical depth to understandings of Northern Nigeria's contemporary religious landscape. The volume parallels another recent collection, Boko Haram: Islamism, Politics, Security and the State in Nigeria, edited by Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos (2014), but is broader in scope. Sects & Social Disorder will be useful for readers seeking to contextualise the violence by Boko Haram, but also for audiences interested in Qur'anic schooling, Muslim immigrants in northern Nigeria, and minority Muslim sects. In his foreword to the volume, Muhammad Sani Umar emphasises its strengths: its multi-causal explanations for complex phenomena, and its grounding in fieldwork and careful documentation.

The volume includes seven chapters, three of them by the editor, Abdul Raufu Mustapha, and another co-authored by Mustapha and Mukhtar Bunza. In Mustapha's introductory chapter, he sketches Northern Nigeria's religious history from the jihad of Shaykh ‘Uthman dan Fodio in 1804 to the present, highlighting three themes: religious fragmentation, struggles over texts, and changing attitudes toward the state. Mustapha and Bunza investigate these themes further in the chapter ‘Contemporary Islamic Sects and Groups in Northern Nigeria,’ discussing Sufi orders, the Izala movement, Nigeria's Shi‘a, and Boko Haram. The authors also note the significant presence of unaffiliated Muslims. This is mostly familiar ground, but it is presented skilfully.

In two other chapters, Mustapha analyses Boko Haram. The chapter ‘Understanding Boko Haram’ argues for a ‘multi-dimensional evidence-based approach’ (p. 166) focused on doctrines, poverty, politics, personal agency, and geographic context. In the volume's conclusion, Mustapha critiques Nigerian government policy toward security and governance, advocating a ‘more concentrated approach to poverty’ (p. 215) as well as the promotion of a ‘counter-doctrine’ (p. 217). These recommendations are not new, but that does not make them wrong.

Three other chapters showcase elements of Muslim life that are often neglected or misrepresented in discussions of northern Nigeria today, namely history, education and ethnicity. Murray Last shows how dissent has recurred from the time of dan Fodio through moments of resistance to colonialism and up to post-colonial episodes of violence. He examines manifestations of dissent in ritual, dress, and exodus. Hannah Hoechner, meanwhile, continues to challenge stereotypes of Qur'anic students (Hausa: almajirai).Footnote ¹ Here she argues that far from existing as a clearly demarcated, marginalised group, almajirai frequently mix with other Muslims – an experience that calls attention to socioeconomic inequalities. Yahaya Hashim and Judith-Ann Walker discuss non-Hausa, non-Fulani Muslims in Kano. They demonstrate that ethnic cleavages expose some Muslims to violence from their coreligionists. These chapters indicate how attention to marginalised Muslims can reveal broader issues of power.

With the publication of this volume and the collection edited by Pérouse de Montclos, the study of Northern Nigerian Islam generally and Boko Haram specifically has reached a certain level of maturity. What this sub-field needs now is a new wave of studies that examine new sources and figures. This volume points the way but also exposes how much remains unknown. For example, there is need for profiles of new generations, such as Shaykh Nasiru Kabara's son and successor Qaribullah, or Shaykh Abubakar Gumi's son Ahmad. Studies of northern Nigeria often continue to feature the same cast of characters that have been well known to researchers since the 1980s; there is a need to update it, and not just by incorporating Muhammad Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau.

The sub-field should also reflect on its obsession with Boko Haram. There is danger now that just as Boko Haram has curtailed the possibilities for research in a logistical sense, it is also narrowing researchers' intellectual scope. Going forward, unless scholars have something genuinely new to say about Boko Haram, based on new sources, they should consider other themes that can be researched.