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Asir (Saudi Arabia)

عسير, Emirate of Asir, Asiri Regional Movement

Introduction
Asiri Regional Movement

See also:

Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Asir was an emirate on the borders of present-day Saudi Arabia and Yemen with several flags in its history. Short history from Wikipedia:

At the rise of the First Saudi State in the 18th century, the towns of 'Asir were governed by local clans in a fashion similar to that of Nejd, while the large tribal confederations maintained a high degree of autonomy. 'Asir was brought under Saudi sovereignty in 1801 after some resistance, yet the region converted quickly to the Wahhabi cause espoused by the Al Saud clan and assigned PrinceAbdulwahab Al-Mathami as governor.
After Abdulwahab died, his cousin Prince Tami ibn Shuib ruled until he was captured by the Ottomans and was executed in Istanbul. When the First Saudi State was destroyed by the Egyptians in 1818, the 'Asiris continued to fight the Egyptian forces in their region tenaciously. However, when the Second Saudi State appeared in Nejd in 1824, 'Asir enjoyed an ambivalent relationship with it, with the 'Asiri leaders generally allying themselves with the Saudis without formally entering under their command. The modern state of Saudi Arabia, led by Abd Al-Aziz Ibn Saud, annexed 'Asir and its neighboring regions in the mid-1920s, deposing the local dynasties there, and later successfully fought off a rival claim for the region by the Zaydi Imam of neighboring Yemen in 1934.

Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Mar 2009

Asiri Regional Movement

image by Ivan Sache, 20 January 2013

James B.Minahan, in his "Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World" – volume I, shows the contemporary flag of Asiri Regional Movement (he calls it an Asiri "national" flag) and describes it as: "a vertical tricolor of green, white, and black, charged with the shahada, the inscription in Arabic that reads 'There is no God but God, Mohammed is the prophet of God' and is written in black on the center stripe."
Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Mar 2009

The image show a flag HORIZONTAL instead vertical. Anyone can stablish if the image is wrong or there’s a mistake in the description?
Jaume Ollé, 19 January 2013

The inconsistency comes from the source. Minahan shows the flag with horizontal stripes but describes it with vertical stripes.
It has already been pointed out several times that the accuracy of flag information in Minahan's book is very low. This is very unfortunate but quite understandable, since the paragraph dedicated to the flag covers only 4 lines out of the 5 pages of the "Asiris" entry. Nothing is said in the context of use of this flag and no source is given.
From a pure geometric point of view, I don't expect flags charged with the shahada to be vertically divided. The horizontal division provides much more space for the writing. All such flags I am aware of are horizontally divided.
Ivan Sache, 20 January 2013