Hulegu Khan converts to Islam?

The Ilkhanate maintained traditional Mongol religious tolerance for a long time, practiced human sacrifice on at least one occasion (Hulegu's funeral), then tried to pull for Tibetan Buddhism for awhile before finally deciding to convert to Islam to bring the ruling Mongols closer to the population. These religious policies had a number of weird impacts, from the on-again-off-again Mongol-Christian alliance, to a war between the Muslim Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate (to some extent in order to protect the Horde's Muslim allies in Egypt).

In the end, the conversion came too little, too late and really only served to further destabilize the Caliphate. But what if Hulegu, much like Berke of the Golden Horde, had instead converted to Islam in the initial stages of his conquest of the Middle East.

This would mean that the Mongol ravaging of Mesopotamia may be somewhat less horrible than OTL. The semi-kinda-allies-sometimes situation with the Crusader states is unlikely to happen, instead the Mongols may ally with the Mamluks and stamp the Crusader states out entirely. The Mamluks could submit themselves to the new Mongol Caliphate, at which point they would be treated well.

Territorial concerns in Azerbaijan notwithstanding, a Hulegu-Berke war is less likely, so the Golden Horde may very well exert more pressure on Europe than in OTL. Perhaps a dual-pronged Mongol invasion of the Byzantine Empire, with Seljuk and Mamluk subject-allies as auxiliaries?
 
I actually don't know that it would mean that much for the Ilkhanate's internal development-Berke's conversion to Islam was more a personal matter, and he made no real effort to "Islamize" the Golden Horde. After his death, the Khans of the Golden Horde were animist until Uzbeg Khan took the throne in 1313 and permanently converted the state to Islam. I suspect that even if Hulegu had become Muslim, much the same thing would have happened in the Ilkhanate.

The only major consequence that I can see is that, if Hulegu's conversion occurs before he takes Baghdad, he might possibly refrain from sacking the city and allow the Abbasid Caliphate to continue to exist, albiet as a complete puppet of the Ilkhanate. However, its unlikely that the Caliphs would ever regain any meaningful political power, and after the fall of the Ilkhanate would simply be puppets of whoever is most powerful in the area.
 
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