Complete 1300 snapshot: Ilkhanate, Egypt, Islamic world, North Africa

- Ilkhanate: Islamicized by 1300, Persian bureaucratic backbone
- Egypt: Mongol military elite replaces Turkic Mamluks, part of Ilkhanate
- Islamic world: decentralized, no caliphate, Hafsid Tunisia as potential Sunni center
- Shia Islam gains space under indifferent Mongol rule
- Added complete 1300 world powers summary table
- All regions now defined at 1300 checkpoint

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

1 files changed, 56 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/WORLDBUILDING.md b/WORLDBUILDING.md
index 5619b5c..a39a339 100644
--- a/WORLDBUILDING.md
+++ b/WORLDBUILDING.md
@@ -117,9 +117,13 @@ Song Huizong's northern campaigns succeed instead of ending in the Jingkang disa
 - Closer to the Volga-based Great Khan than historically (Karakorum was much further)
 
 ### Ilkhanate (Hulagu's line)
-- Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, possibly Egypt
+- Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt
+- Capital: Tabriz (northwestern Persia/Azerbaijan)
 - Eventually independent after succession crisis
-- Islamicizes over time (historical pattern)
+- **Already substantially Islamicized by ~1300** (historical pattern: Ghazan Khan converted 1295)
+- Persian bureaucrats are the administrative backbone (mirror of Byzantium's role in Mongol-Rus)
+- 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.
 
 ### Tolui Khanate (Far East)
 - **Mongol homeland** (now the imperial periphery, not the center)
@@ -400,11 +404,21 @@ Song goods -> Central Asia -> Mongol-Rus territory -> two routes:
 - Bohemia: Catholic
 - Papacy: survives in Rome (Italy protected by Alps)
 
-### Islam
-- Ilkhanate/Middle East: continues to Islamicize (historical pattern for Mongol states in Muslim regions)
-- Central Asia (Chagatai Khanate): Islamic
-- North Africa: Islamic, relatively unaffected by these changes
-- Possible absence of Ottoman Empire means no single dominant Islamic power by 1836
+### Islam: Decentralized, No Single Authority
+- **Abbasid Caliphate destroyed (1258)** and no successor emerges:
+  - No Ottoman Empire to claim caliphal authority
+  - No Mamluk-hosted shadow caliphate in Cairo (Mamluks are now Mongol vassals)
+- **Ilkhanate**: Islamicized by ~1300, but Mongol-conquest origin limits religious legitimacy
+- **Chagatai Khanate**: Islamicizing, Central Asian Islam continues
+- **North Africa (Maghreb)**: The last fully independent Sunni Muslim region
+  - Morocco (Marinid dynasty): independent
+  - Algeria (Zayyanid dynasty): independent
+  - **Tunisia (Hafsid dynasty): potential new center of Sunni Islam** — Hafsid sultans were historically recognized as caliphs by some; in a world without Abbasids or Ottomans, Tunis may become the spiritual capital of Sunni Islam
+- **Consequences of decentralization**:
+  - Sufi orders gain importance as trans-political religious networks
+  - Shia Islam may gain more space under Mongol rule in Persia (Mongols indifferent to Sunni-Shia divide)
+  - Islamic legal/scholarly authority fragments among regional ulama centers (Al-Azhar in Cairo, Qarawiyyin in Fez, Samarkand)
+  - No single Islamic power capable of projecting force like the historical Ottomans
 
 ### Song China
 - Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism (historical pattern)
@@ -412,18 +426,42 @@ Song goods -> Central Asia -> Mongol-Rus territory -> two routes:
 
 ---
 
-## Open Questions (1300 Snapshot Remaining)
+## 1300 Snapshot: COMPLETE
+
+All major regions defined at the 1300 checkpoint. Summary of world powers:
+
+| Power | Center | Nature |
+|---|---|---|
+| Song Dynasty | China (Kaifeng/Hangzhou) | Industrial superpower, expanding into SE Asia |
+| Mongol-Rus Empire | Volga River | Largest land empire, Orthodox, Mongol-Slavic hybrid |
+| Ilkhanate | Tabriz | Islamicized Mongol-Persian empire, controls Middle East + Egypt |
+| Chagatai Khanate | Samarkand | Central Asian, Islamicizing |
+| Tolui Khanate | Mongolia/Siberia | Peripheral, poor, strategic position |
+| Plantagenet France | Paris | Atlantic power, cross-Channel, rising |
+| Greater Germany | Hanseatic cities | Commercial power, emerging from Mongol vassalage |
+| Crown of Aragon | Barcelona | Mediterranean + Languedoc |
+| Castile-León | Toledo/Burgos | Atlantic Iberia |
+| Portugal | Lisbon | Small Atlantic state |
+| Burgundy | Dijon | Independent French-speaking buffer state |
+| Bohemia | Prague | Independent, mountain-protected |
+| Kalmar Union | Forming | Scandinavian defensive alliance |
+| Byzantine Empire | Constantinople | Mongol vassal, Balkans/Anatolia manager |
+| Hafsid Tunisia | Tunis | Potential new center of Sunni Islam |
+| Marinid Morocco | Fez | Independent Islamic state |
+| Italy | Various | City-states, no divergence yet |
+| Poland | Krakow | Mongol vassal (Korean model) |
+| Granada | Granada | Last European Muslim state, Castilian tributary |
 
-1. **Italy (post-1300 evolution)**: How do city-states develop differently? Renaissance? Unification pressure?
-2. **Ilkhanate / Persia / Middle East**: Mamluk submission degree? Persian cultural dynamics? Islamic world without a caliphate?
-3. **North Africa**: Maghreb states' relationship with post-Ilkhanate Middle East?
+---
 
 ## Open Questions (Post-1300 Chronological Development)
 
-4. **1300-1500 era**: Each region's evolution through late medieval period
-5. **Age of Exploration**: Delayed? Led by whom? Song maritime expansion vs. European exploration?
-6. **The Americas**: Who discovers/colonizes them?
-7. **Africa and India**: Song colonial sphere? European competition?
-8. **Song's North-South civil war**: When? Outcome? What does Song look like by 1836?
-9. **Mongol-Rus internal evolution**: Slavic nationalism? Industrialization attempts?
-10. **1836 technology levels**: Who has what? Is Song far ahead of everyone?
+1. **1300-1500 era**: Each region's evolution through late medieval period
+2. **Italy post-1300**: Renaissance? Different city-state dynamics? Unification pressure?
+3. **Age of Exploration**: Delayed? Led by whom? Song maritime expansion vs. European exploration?
+4. **The Americas**: Who discovers/colonizes them?
+5. **Africa and India**: Song colonial sphere? European competition?
+6. **Song's North-South civil war**: When? Outcome? What does Song look like by 1836?
+7. **Mongol-Rus internal evolution**: Slavic nationalism? Industrialization attempts?
+8. **Ilkhanate fragmentation**: Does Egypt break away? Persia's trajectory?
+9. **1836 technology levels**: Who has what? Is Song far ahead of everyone?