Paul Walker opens his recent work on Fatimid history with an elegant description of the initial public proclamation of Fatimid rule:

Walker describes the rise of the Fatimids, according to Ismaili followers, as a successful revolution – a ‘glorious end’ that is grounded in a return to an idealised past, a time when truth has triumphed over falsehood. One of the most remarkable and unexplored aspects of early Fatimid political theology is how early exegetes of empire so effectively harnessed the utopian dimensions of apocalypticism while distancing its imminence. This chapter explores some of the hermeneutical mechanisms used by two exegetes in particular to locate the Fatimid empire and/or the imām as the locus of earthly utopia while postponing the end of time. These questions – of eschatological postponement and simultaneous consolidation of authority – are inspired by and related to theoretical discussions in the sociology of religion concerning the reinterpretation of apocalyptic prophecy. My analysis differs from this body of literature in at least two respects. First, I focus here on the specific mechanisms of reinterpretation and consolidation articulated by my sources; my analysis is thus more textual than sociological.