One theory, proposed by Al-Masudi in his work The Meadows of Gold, suggests that the region was originally known as the "land of Azd".

[4] A third perspective proposed by Fuad Hamza in his book Fi bilad ʿAseer, links the name to the historical prominence of Banu Asir.

[5] In 25 B.C., Aelius Gallus marched his legions south from Egypt on an expedition of 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometres), to take control of the ancient overland trade routes between the Mediterranean Sea and what is now Hadhramaut in Yemen.

As part of this campaign, he sent his Bedouin warriors also known as the Ikhwan to occupy ʿAsir, and the ruler of the region, Hasan Al Idrissi, had to leave.

[7] From then on ʿAsir has been controlled by the House of Saud, a situation formalized in 1934 with the signing of the Treaty of Taʾif between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Since 2023 at least several hundred Ethiopian refugees have been killed at the border between Yemen and the provinces Jazan, Asir and Najran.

[18] Soudah Peaks is a planned luxury mountain tourism destination located at 3,015 meters above sea level.

Though data is exceedingly sparse and unreliable, the average annual rainfall in the highlands probably ranges from 300–500 millimetres (12–20 in).

It is common[clarification needed] for afternoon temperatures to be over 30 °C (86 °F), yet mornings can be extremely frosty and fog can cut visibility to near zero percent.