Syracuse, Sicily Sicily until it fell to the Aghlabids after another siege on 20/21 May 878. During the two centuries of Muslim rule, the capital of the Emirate of Sicily was moved from Syracuse to Palermo. The Cathedral was converted into a mosque and the quarter on the Ortygia island was gradually rebuilt along Islamic styles. The city, nevertheless, maintained important trade relationships, and housed a relatively flourishing cultural and artistic life: several Arab poets, including Ibn Hamdis, the most important Sicilian Arab poet of the 12th century, flourished in the city. In 1038, the Byzantine general George Maniakes reconquered the city,
Geology of Sicily well as the regional uplift of the Calabrian unit. The tectonic setting of Sicily is controlled by the rate of collision of the African plate and Eurasian plate and the rate of back rolling of the African plate. The tectonic history of Sicily can be divided into four main stages: During Late Triassic, the ancient Neotethys ocean was formed by a major continental rifting event and rapid tectonic subsidence. Traces of the tectonic event can be found at both the Hyblean plateau and western Sicily. After the rapid subsidence during Triassic to Early Jurassic, there was a slow thermal subsidence