'Abhā

Abha lies high in the Sarawat mountains of southwestern Arabia, in a fertile valley surrounded by the heights of Asir. Its older settlement consisted of distinct villages and quarters, including Manazir, al-Qabil, al-Khasha and al-Qura. Houses of stone and earth rose several storeys above the valley, their projecting courses of stone helping to protect the walls from rain. Farms and orchards occupied the surrounding slopes and valley floor. The neighbouring communities of the mountains maintained their own fortified houses and settlements.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Asir came within the sphere of the first Saudi state. Its rulers and tribes were drawn into the struggle with Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt. After the fall of Diriyah in 1818, Ottoman-Egyptian forces continued their campaigns in the southwest. Abha was besieged, and Ali ibn Mujaththal surrendered; another Asiri leader, Muhammad al-Mutahhami, was taken and sent to Egypt. Local power later re-emerged under the Al Aid, whose centre was at nearby al-Saqqa.

In 1834 another Egyptian expedition besieged and entered Abha. Before the occupation, Aid ibn Mari is said to have burned a palace in al-Miftaha so that the attacking troops could not use it. The campaigns brought the wider conflict between regional rulers and the Ottoman governor of Egypt into the mountain settlements themselves.