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City of Brass will be on a short hiatus starting today and all through next week. I am sure most of the blogsphere will not even notice, but for anyone who does actually stop by here to read what I have to say, I think you'll find Talk Islam a far superior substitute in my absence.

Also, don't forget that the nominations period for the Brass Crescent Awards ends on Friday, so it's your last chance to get your nominations in! Hurry up and nominate! Right now!

I'll be out of town this week, but hopefully will have a guest post or two to fill in the time. Until then, don't forget to check out Talk Islam for ongoing discussion and links - it's the best place on the web to talk about, er, Islam. And pretty much everything else :)

It's difficult to leave Africa - literally, our flight kept getting delayed and we barely made our connection to Amsterdam. But also in a philosophical sense, it is hard to leave, because some piece of Africa stays with you. This was a fantastic, if grueling, trip, and it definitely affected my perspectives with regards to my blogging and my political priorities. I will have much more to say about Africa later, and I also have some photos to organize and share as well.

I'd like to extend a sincere thanks and express my deep gratitude to all my guest bloggers, especially Willow and Hesham for keeping things moving. I am glad that City of Brass was in such capable hands while I was gone; I actually enjoyed reading my own blog for a change!

So, I am back. Let's get started.

This Saturday, I will be leaving for Mombasa, Kenya with my wife and kids for a couple of weeks. We are headed there to observe the occasion of Ashara, the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husain AS on the plains of Karbala, Iraq almost 1400 years ago. Each year, the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra muslim community, Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin TUS, chooses a different venue for the sermons, and then Bohras from all over the world flock there.

Last year I traveled to Colombo for Ashara and managed to post a few pictures to my other blog. This year I hope to do the same, but in my absence there will be some guest voices around here. Filling in for regular blogging duties will be my friend Willow Wilson, a writer and essayist who spent years living in Cairo, and Hesham Hassaballa, who is a regular columnist here at Beliefnet and at altmuslim. In addition to their posts, there will be a few surprise guest posts by various Islamsphere notables, some you may not have heard of, and others you certainly have. So, settle in and enjoy the ride, and I hope that there's still room for me when I get back!

Anyone here have a Twitter account? I'm @azizhp - if you use twitter too, please do leave a comment with your username!

I've actually been writing a lot about twitter over the past year or so. Here's a compilation of interesting users to follow, for example.