The last decades have seen important transformations in northern Nigeria’s religious landscape. With the rise of Islamic ideologies of reform, new bodies of religious knowledge have emerged, taught for example in the now ubiquitous ’modern’ Islamic (Islamiyya) schools. This was accompanied by novel approaches to handling such knowledge, with reformers pushing for its ’democratisation’. These trends have profoundly affected the position of the ’traditional’ ulama, and the boys and young men (almajirai) studying under their guidance. Paradoxically, though a ’democratising’ thrust underpinned its spread, the popularity of ’modern’ Islamic education has given rise to new forms of exclusion for those who do not have access to it.