With the departure of the Abbasid Caliphate from Sanaa in the mid-ninth century, the local tribal population of South Arabia at the beginning of the tenth century was in competition for control over the highlands with the recent arrivals of the Zaydis and Isma’ilis from outside the region. In this combative context the local scholar al-Hamdānī put together a ten volume compendium entitled al-Iklīl, which contained the history and other unique aspects of the inhabitants of South Arabia such as their genealogies and ancient language. This paper focuses on the first section of the eighth volume, which consists of a type of spatialized historiography organized around the landscape of their numerous monuments. Through celebratory descriptions of the structures and short narratives about events that took place in and around them, it shows how this text was constructed to aid in the formation and maintenance of the South Arabian political identity in a fashion akin to modern cultural heritage texts. In order to emphasize various facets of their identity, al-Hamdānī reviews different types of monuments. Castles and other fortifications demonstrate the former glory and might of the ancient Himyarite kingdom. Polytheistic temples and Islamic mosques allow for acknowledgment of past religious practices, but more explicitly serve to emphasize the rejection of them and their early embrace of monotheism before the advent of Islam. Dams and other water management structures that carpet the highlands provide an opportunity to stress the extent of their achievement in the creation and exploitation of cultivable land to its fullest. Finally, in some of the entries of these monuments al-Hamdānī layers multiple periods of history. This layering helps to define strategic collective memories for commemoration while at the same time drawing more immediate connections between the past and historical present. This historiographic technique is most effective when he parallels descriptions of previous invasions of South Arabia with the attacks that it was currently enduring by its latest invaders.