Qualla: Asir https://qualla.com/asir en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Asir https://qualla.com/asir Asir: Introduction https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit ar:مستخدم:مشعل_السيد, Public domain. The diurnal temperature range in the highlands of Asir is among the greatest in the world. Afternoons climb past 30 degrees Celsius; mornings freeze. Fog cuts visibility to near zero. Coniferous forests - actual coniferous forests, in Saudi Arabia - cling to sheltered slopes where the moisture collects. This is the country's wettest, coolest, and most vertically dramatic province, and it was also one of the last territories to accept Saudi rule. The Asiris did not surrender easily. They fought the Ottoman Egyptian forces in 1818 after the First Saudi State fell. They fought the Ottomans themselves in the 1870s. They fought the Idrisis and then the Hashemites. Asir was an internationally recognized sovereign state into the 1920s - and it is still, in many quiet ways, a place that does things its own way.

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Image: ar:مستخدم:مشعل_السيد | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Asir: Where the Sarawat Peaks https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. The province sits on a high plateau in southwestern Saudi Arabia, bounded by Mecca Province to the north and west, Al-Bahah to the northwest, Riyadh Province to the northeast, Najran Province to the southeast, and Yemen's Saada Governorate to the south. Covering 76,693 square kil...

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-where-the-sarawat-peaks.mp3 0:06 2 full Asir: The Emirate That Almost Was https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit يحيى الزهري, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the First Saudi state was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire in 1818, the Asiris refused to accept Ottoman rule. They fought. With the Ottoman withdrawal in 1840, the Al-Ayedh dynasty took control of the highlands. They aligned with the Saudis - who had by then re-established t...

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Image: يحيى الزهري | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-the-emirate-that-almost-was.mp3 0:06 3 full Asir: The Vertical Garden https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit Heritage Commission, CC BY-SA 4.0. Traditional Asiri houses are stone towers painted on the inside with geometric designs in vivid colors - a women's art form called al-Qatt al-Asiri, recognized by UNESCO in 2017. The paintings cover interior walls in red, yellow, green, and black, the patterns passed down matrili...

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Image: Heritage Commission | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-the-vertical-garden.mp3 0:06 4 full Asir: Soudah Peaks and the Future https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit Ulvhgulvd, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 2019, the Saudi government has poured more than a billion riyals into the province's infrastructure - health care, transportation, municipal services - as part of Vision 2030's push to diversify the economy away from oil. The headline project is Soudah Peaks, a planned luxu...

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Image: Ulvhgulvd | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-soudah-peaks-and-the-future.mp3 0:06 5 full Asir: The Border Nobody Talks About https://qualla.com/asir/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Asir shares a long border with Yemen, and that border has a grim recent history. Since 2014, hundreds of Ethiopian migrants attempting to cross from Yemen into Saudi Arabia through Asir have been killed. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report documented at least several hundred deaths ...

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/q/s/asir-wp/sgqs-asir-the-border-nobody-talks-about.mp3 0:06 6 full