Sicily and encouraged the growth of smallholdings, undermining the dominance of the latifundia. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems. The language spoken in Sicily under Arab rule was Siculo-Arabic and Arabic influence is still present in some Sicilian words today. Although the language is extinct in Sicily, it has developed into what is now the Maltese language on the islands of Malta today. A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqal, an Arab merchant who visited Sicily in 950. A walled suburb, called the Al-Kasr (the palace), is the centre of Palermo to this day, with the great Friday mosque
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