The writings of the fifteenth century Ismaili author ?Im?d al-D?n Idr?s (d. 872/1468) offer an instructive illustration of the crafting of an Ismaili master narrative. In his monumental, multi-volume work titled ‘Uy?n al-Akhb?r wa Fun?n al-Ath?r, Idr?s records the key developments in Ismaili history and doctrines from the time of Prophet Muhammad in the six centuries up until his own era. As the Chief D?‘? of the ?ayyib? Ismailis in Yemen and India, Idr?s had a vested interest in privileging the Ismaili imams as the only legitimate inheritors of the prophetic mantle, and therefore the exclusive successors to his spiritual and temporal authority. His primary purpose in composing the Uy?n was to relate for the Ismaili da‘wa and its followers the unfolding of this divine plan. The reign of the fourth Imam-caliph, al-Mu?izz li D?n All?h (341-365/953-975), a remarkable sovereign in whose era Egypt was brought under Fatimid rule, transforming the North African state into a Mediterranean empire, was thus comprehensively recorded by Idr?s in his Uy?n al-Akhb?r. Idris’ principal purpose in crafting the narrative on the life and times of al-Mu’izz was to present him as one of a continuing series of imams in the cycles of the imamate, a role whose primordial purpose was the salvation of the believers and whose spiritual pedigree was traced to the Abrahamic prophets. This teleological approach to history provides an instructive perspective on the construction of a medieval Ismaili meta-narrative. This paper will examine Idr?s’ purpose and methodology in creating the master narrative in the Uy?n. It will compare this perspective with other approaches to historical writing in this period, and will review the weaving of doctrine and cosmology in his narrative of history, which was reflective of the ?ayyib? Ismaili weltenschaung.