 In 704, Sis was besieged by the Arabs, but relieved by the Byzantines.The Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil took it and refortified it, but it soon returned to Byzantine hands.It was rebuilt in 1186 by Leo II, king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, one of the Rupenide dynasty who made the city the capital of the Kingdom of Lesser Armenia (from 1186 till 1375).