Description : Zarzis also known as Jarjis (Arabic: جرجيس About this soundgergīs / zerzīs) is a coastal commune (municipality) in southeastern Tunisia, former bishopric and Latin Catholic titular see under its ancient name Gergis. To the Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs the port was of strategic importance. The city was known in Antiquity as Gergis and located at the western end of the Lesser Syrtis (Gulf of Gabès), not far from the island of Meninx (current Djerba). The town may owe its name and/or origin to the Biblical tribes of Girgashites which, according to ancient Jewish writers, had left the Canaan at the time of Joshua and went to settle in North Africa. According to Stadiasme, it had a castle, where stood the ruins and a citadel modern still bearing the old name albeit now pronounced Zarzis, and a (navy) port. Gergis was important enough in the Roman province of Tripolitania (in the papal sway) to become a suffragan bishopric, which was to fade, presumably at the seventh century advent of Islam. Its ecclesiastical history is confused, due to confusion in consulting the Latin sources with the near-homonymous diocese Girba (modern Djerba).
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