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A friend drew our attention to this video on CNN Turk about going to Yayla (highlands) in Black Sea, Turkey. Even if you can’t understand Turkish it is still good to watch because it shows what life is like up there. My own mother goes up every year; indeed she headed off just last week [...]

So we are making our escape, setting down in Istanbul on Saturday afternoon. That sprawling metropolis bridging Europe and Asia. InshaAllah we will pray Tarawih in one or two of the grand mosques. But soon we will be moving on. If we fly, we will be in Trabzon, eastwards along the Black Sea coast an [...]

I must say this rather bothered me on my recent pilgrimage to Mecca: the construction of a monstrosity that already overshadows the Kaaba, even as its construction continues. When it is finished in three years’ time it will be the world’s seventh largest building – it can already be seen for miles around on the [...]

21 December 2006: It is our forth day in Medina in the warming heat of Arabia according to our own grand master plan. Shortly we will depart for Mecca and the wondrous House. Planned months in advance and carefully financed—ihram sourced a month before departure, suitcases packed two weeks before—but though we plot and plan, [...]

As the days pass by—it is now two weeks since we returned from our Hajj adventure—there is a sense of regret which overpowers me: one of our leaders’ voice echoes in my head with ever greater frequency. “Come on, get up and get to the Masjid,” Batool told the ill amongst us, “Wallahi, you will [...]

In days of old the tribulations faced by the pilgrim on his journey to Mecca included the assault of ravaging bandits determined to make quick profits by pillaging the winding desert caravans. In our own age, say some, the road to Mecca is easy, a comfortable voyage by jetliner to comfortable five-star accommodation. That may [...]

This is the view from the hill above my village, looking northwards towards the town of Hopa and the Black Sea beyond at sunset. On a clearer day you would just be able to see the sea.

On Tuesday 9 July 1996, we flew from Dodoma at about 7.30 in the morning to Musoma, with a stop at Arusha to pick two other passengers up. Taking off from Arusha the surrounding landscape was filled with lush vegetation, including Banana Palms. Houses were round with cone-shaped thatched roofs, grouped in twos and threes [...]

My journey to Tanzania on 1 June 1996 was the first time I had travelled abroad alone and I was apprehensive about the journey. When my plane touched down in Darussalam on a very warm winter’s evening there was some sense of relief, although I suffered from nerves which made my passage through customs uncomfortable. [...]

Ten years ago I spent forty-one days in Tanzania. Some memories… Darussalam at sunset. The road out of the college where I was staying in June 1996: Kongwa, Dodoma province. Elephants on the plain at sunrise. Kongwa at sun down.

Article by Nimo Shire My leaving Kismaayo It has been nearly 14 years since I was last in Kismaayo, my hometown in Somalia. It was dawn when we fled. We fled first thing in the morning as militia groups rolled in to try and take control of the city. There was uncertainty up to the [...]