THE MONGOLS AND THE MAMLUKS:
In the thirteenth century still another threat to the Muslim world appeared in the land beyond the Oxus: the Mongols. Led by Genghis Khan, a confederation of nomadic tribes which had already conquered China now attacked the Muslims. In 1220 they took Samarkand and Bukhara. By mid-century they had taken Russia, Central Europe, northern Iran, and the Caucuses, and in 1258, under Hulagu Khan, they invaded Baghdad and put an end to the remnants of the once-glorious 'Abbasid Empire. The ancient systems of irrigation were destroyed and the devastation was so extensive that agricultural recovery, even in the twentieth century, is still incomplete. Because a minor scion of the dynasty took refuge with the Mamluks in Egypt, the 'Abbasid caliphate continued in name into the sixteenth century. In effect, however, it expired with the Mongols and the capture of Baghdad. From Iraq the Mongols pressed forward into Syria and then toward Egypt where, for the first time, they faced adversaries who refused to quail before their vaunted power. These were the Mamluks, soldier-slaves from the Turkish steppe area north of the Black and Caspian Seas with a later infusion of Circassians from the region of the Caucuses Mountains.
The Mamluks had been recruited by the Ayyubids and then, like the Turkish mercenaries of the 'Abbasid caliphs, had usurped power from their enfeebled masters. Unlike their predecessors, however, they were able to maintain their power, and they retained control of Egypt until the Ottoman conquest in 1517. Militarily formidable, they were also the first power to defeat the Mongols in open combat when, in 1260, the Mongols moved against Palestine and Egypt. Alerted by a chain of signal fires stretching from Iraq to Egypt, the Mamluks were able to marshal their forces in time to meet, and crush, the Mongols at 'Ayn Jalut near Nazareth in Palestine.
Islams strength lays in its oil posessions
Here they can destabilize the entire world if they so will.
Unless nukes are used..and more specifically *Neutronics which destroy living matter and do not destabilize inert ,except in event horizon,
their population numerics..logistic strength and sizable theatre missile systems could cause great losses to an approaching army and navy..even a confederacy.
Yet..they would loose.
The reality of extortion ..ie oil is their trump card.
anyones guess if this crisis with Islam collapses into a confederacy vs confederacy reality.
Nostradamus forwards this ident....time will tell if he has truly seen the future.
After the Mamluk victory over the Mongols the Mamluks thanked the Crusaders by wiping them out of the Holy Land.
The Crusaders of Western Europe were a stupid lot and learned nothing from their time in the Holy Land about the ways of people they encountered.
There is a lesson in that example, also.
PS: The Mamluks were the Muslims most responsible for the eradication of many Christian populations in the Middle East before the arrival of the Ottomans. Reasoning? No local Christians no more Crusades. There is a lesson in that too.