The tenth century is often known as the ‘Shi'i Century’ due to the rise to power of the Isma’ili Fatimids (909-1171) and the Itha’ashari Buyids (945-1055): two powerful rival Shi'i empires in Cairo and Baghdad. Accordingly, the victory of the Sunni Seljuk and Ayyubid forces over these states in the eleventh and twelfth centuries is often depicted as the ‘Sunni Revival.’ While modern scholars have attempted to complicate this binary struggle between Sunni and Shi'i powers, the fundamental struggle of this century is often ignored: the consolidation of competing forms of Shi'i identity. Qadi al-Nu’man (d. 974) was an early convert to the Isma’ili movement, served several Fatimid Caliphs, and is credited with creating a distinct Isma’ili form of jurisprudence. His work "Iftitah al-Da’wa" is a historical narrative of the advent of the Fatimid Caliphate. Completed in 957, it details the struggle of the Isma’ili da’wa to conquer North Africa, establish the Fatimid Caliphate, and the reign of the first Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mahdi (d. 934). While scholars have plumbed this source for historical details, there has been no attention paid to it as an example of an ideological document that makes the case for the dominance of the Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in the face the competing Islamic movements. This paper attempts to correct this oversight and examine al-Nu’man’s history as the deliberate crafting of a triumphal master narrative of the foundation of the Fatimid Caliphate. This paper will examine how, in an era of conflict between Muslim movements, al-Nu’man silences early dissent within the Isma’ili movement and presents an image of the supremacy of the Fatimid Isma’ili da’wa in order to win adherents from both Sunni and Shi’i Muslims. Examining how al-Nu’man crafted a master narrative for the Fatimid Caliphate explores the use of historical narrative in legitimizing state power and exposes the process by which competing forms of Islamic identity were consolidated.