WI: Mongke Khan lives a bit longer -- effects on Egypt?

If it's burned the ground-I can't even imagine the despair in the Islamic world-it won't destroy Islam but it will greatly shake its confidence.
 
It might lead to a rabid anti-Mongol sentiment throughout the Middle East; the Ilkhanate might fall faster than OTL. The shake in confidence could have wide-ranging effects as well, though.
 
Yemen would be after Mecca of course though the OTL Mongols did leave unscathed Shia Holy sites such as Najaf and Karbala unscathed, while Qom was shortly rebuilt after being destroyed by the Mongols. Doubt the razing of Mecca and Medina would destroy Islam or prompt that hysteric a reaction (from reading other threads on here exploring similar themes) though such an event at the hands of the Mongols would definitely dampen the religious triumphalism in the long term unlike OTL Qarmatians, perhaps even spawn an Islamic equivalent of Augustine of Hippo's The City of God as well as potentially provide a catalyst for change.

It would interesting seeing the Mongols somehow managing to cross the Bab-el-Mandab from Yemen to Djibouti / Eritrea towards Egypt from the south tearing through Khartoum along the way though doubt it is plausible.
 
Will they eventually sweep the Maghreb westwards if they take Egypt? Or maybe North Africa is where the Franks focus their Crusades until the Mongols are weak enough to be taken on.

On the flipside, maybe the center of the Muslim world shifts to Al-Andalus and the Maghreb as many emigrate there for refuge.

I don't think Mongols would raze the holy cities unless they faced some huge Muslim revolt, but even then they included Muslims in their numbers.
 
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