Add Egypt governor's Sunni-Shia double game, North Africa section

- Egypt: governor exploits Sunni-Shia tension for autonomy (protects Al-Azhar vs Tabriz)
- Libya as Sunni-Shia gray zone
- North Africa section: Maghreb states status, trans-Saharan trade, coming threats
- Tunisia rising as Sunni spiritual capital (scholar migration from Shia-ruled Egypt)
- No Ottoman rescue: North Africa must face European pressure alone
- Aragon future outposts noted but not yet established

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

1 files changed, 25 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/WORLDBUILDING.md b/WORLDBUILDING.md
index 3605bc3..85ade29 100644
--- a/WORLDBUILDING.md
+++ b/WORLDBUILDING.md
@@ -123,7 +123,10 @@ Song Huizong's northern campaigns succeed instead of ending in the Jingkang disa
 - **Already substantially Islamicized by ~1300** (historical pattern: Ghazan Khan converted 1295)
 - Persian bureaucrats are the administrative backbone (mirror of Byzantium's role in Great Khanate)
 - Culturally evolving into a Mongol-dynasty Persian-Islamic empire
-- **Egypt**: governed by Mongol military governor (replacing Turkic Mamluk elite). Mongol hereditary military aristocracy replaces the non-hereditary Mamluk slave-soldier system. Arab/Coptic administrative class retained. Al-Azhar and Islamic institutions preserved. Tendency toward autonomy over time (Egypt always separates eventually — Tulunids, Fatimids, Muhammad Ali pattern). By V3 era: likely a Mongol-blooded but fully Arabicized/Islamicized dynasty.
+- **Egypt**: governed by Mongol military governor (replacing Turkic Mamluk elite). Mongol hereditary military aristocracy replaces the non-hereditary Mamluk slave-soldier system. Arab/Coptic administrative class retained. Al-Azhar and Islamic institutions preserved. Tendency toward autonomy over time (Egypt always separates eventually — Tulunids, Fatimids, Muhammad Ali pattern).
+  - **Governor's double game**: Mongol-blooded governor exploits Sunni-Shia tension to build local power base. Protects Sunni institutions (Al-Azhar) against Tabriz's Shia centralization → gains loyalty of local Egyptian elites. Plays both sides: loyal Ilkhanate vassal to Tabriz, protector of Sunni faith to Cairo. Secret contacts with Hafsid Tunisia (Sunni center).
+  - Libya (Tripolitania/Cyrenaica): gray zone between Shia Egypt and Sunni Tunisia. Neither fully controls it.
+  - By V3 era: likely fully independent Arabicized dynasty maintaining fiction of Ilkhanate membership.
 
 ### Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus) (Far East)
 - **Mongol homeland** (now the imperial periphery, not the center)
@@ -576,6 +579,27 @@ After Timur's death (~1405), his empire fragments. Combined with Great Khanate's
 
 ---
 
+## North Africa / Maghreb
+
+### Status at 1425: Calm Before the Storm
+- **Morocco (Marinid dynasty)**: Declining. Wattasid regents gaining power. Lost Ceuta to Portugal (1415).
+- **Algeria (Zayyanid dynasty)**: Weak, squeezed between Morocco and Tunisia. Often vassalized by one neighbor.
+- **Tunisia (Hafsid dynasty)**: Golden age under Abu Faris (1394-1434). Mediterranean trade hub. **Rising as Sunni Islam's spiritual capital** (Hafsid caliphate claim increasingly recognized).
+- Trans-Saharan gold trade (from Mali/Songhai) continues unchanged — North Africa's most stable revenue source
+
+### Coming Threats (not yet materialized by 1425)
+- **Portugal**: Will continue pressing Moroccan coast from Ceuta base
+- **Aragon**: Future North African coastal outposts likely, but not yet established
+- **Portuguese West African exploration**: Once sea route to West African gold coast is established (~1440s+), it bypasses Saharan caravan routes → undermines North African middleman economy
+- **No Ottoman Empire to rescue them**: Historically, Ottomans conquered North Africa (1500s) and protected it from Spanish invasion. In this timeline, North Africa must face European pressure alone.
+
+### Sunni-Shia Fault Line
+- Runs through Libya (Tripolitania/Cyrenaica) between Sunni Tunisia and Shia-ruled Egypt
+- Sunni scholars fleeing Egypt's Shia rulers migrate to Tunis and Fez → boosts Maghreb's Islamic scholarly prestige
+- Tunisia-Egypt relations tense: religious rivalry + Egyptian governor's double game (courting Sunni support while nominally Shia)
+
+---
+
 ## Religion in This World
 
 ### Eastern Orthodoxy