Page 66 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

CHAPTER V

ASIR

Area

The term ‘Asir’ {Asir) is understood nowadays to denote all
that part of Western Arabia which lies immediately south of Hejaz,
between the latter and Yemen; but it is of only quite modern use as a
designation for anything more than the section of the Inland Ridge
and the ‘Aqaboh occupied by the four tribes of Beni Mugheid, Beni
Malik, Alqam el-Hul, and Rufeidat el-Yemen, all of whom livfe round
the capital, Ibha (Ebha). Even now it is not always understood by
natives to denote the same or any clearly defined region. It is con­
venient, however, to apply the term to all the area intervening
between the southern limit of Hejaz (a line drawn inland from Lith)
and the northern boundary of the jurisdiction of the Imam of Yemen
(about lat. 17° 15' N.). To this must be added the seaboard and the
maritime plain down to lat. 16°, where the Wadi ‘Ain divides the
Idrisi territory from that of the Turks. Its extension from the Red
Sea to the east is difficult to define, since, as is the case with Hejaz,
its eastern districts are not separated by any exact boundary from
the steppes and deserts of Nejd. A line drawn from the coast to
Bishah measures about 180 miles. In the southern part the boundary
marches with that of the Yam tribes of Nejran.

Relief

Internally this region is still not sufficiently known for the
details of its relief to be described ; but, broadly, it may be said
that the first Hejaz zone, the low sandy maritime belt, is prolonged
southwards with a breadth of 20 or 30 miles through Asir to meet
the Tihamah of Yemen, while the second, third, and fourth Hejaz
zones are, in Asir, less sharply distinguished one from another.
Instead of the low, rounded, and dusty hills which form the second
zone in Hejaz, we find a lofty escarpment ('aqabah) backed by
a plateau region (third zone), which falls little, if at all, eastwards
towards the foot of the main ridge of the fourth Hejaz zone.
This ridge is here uniformly higher than in Hejaz, ranging from