Djinet (Arabic: جنّات ''Jannāt''), the classical Cissi, is a port town and commune in the Bordj Menaïel District of

Boumerdès Province Boumerdès (, Kabyle language, Kabyle: Tanebḍit n Bumerdas) is a provinces of Algeria, province (''wilaya'') of northern Algeria, located in the Kabylia region, between Algiers and Tizi-Ouzou, with its capital at the coastal city of Boumerdès ...

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

, east of the mouth of the Isser River and around Cape Djinet. As of 2008, the population of the municipality is 21,966. The town is particularly notable for its power plant and accompanying desalination unit. A fishing port recently built there, originally scheduled to open in 2007, became fully operational only in 2016 due to problems with sand accumulation.

History

Djinet was a

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n and Carthaginian

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

under the name Kissi or Kishi (, , if Lipiński's interpretation of an inscription found there is accepted) The name was hellenized as ''Kissḗ''. After the

Punic Wars The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between the Roman Republic and the Ancient Carthage, Carthaginian Empire during the period 264 to 146BC. Three such wars took place, involving a total of forty-three years of warfare on both land and ...

, it fell under Roman control. Its name was Latinized as Cissi and it was placed into the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Mauretania Caesariensis Mauretania Caesariensis (Latin for "Caesarea, Numidia, Caesarean Mauretania") was a Roman province located in present-day Algeria. The full name refers to its capital Caesarea, Numidia, Caesarea Mauretaniae (modern Cherchell). The province had ...

. It appeared on the ''

Tabula Peutingeriana ' (Latin Language, Latin for 'The Peutinger Map'), also known as Peutinger's Tabula, Peutinger tablesJames Strong (theologian) , James Strong and John McClintock (theologian) , John McClintock (1880)"Eleutheropolis" In: ''The Cyclopedia of Bibli ...

''.J. Ferron, v. ''Cissi'', i
''Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques''
vol. XII, Parigi 1953, coll. 851-852 The ruins of a 4th or 5th-century Christian church could still be easily distinguished at Cape Djinet up to the 19th century, but little trace now remains. After 484, it disappears from written sources for several centuries, including the 7th-8th century

Muslim conquest of the Maghreb The conquest of the Maghreb by the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates commenced in 647 and concluded in 709, when the Byzantine Empire lost its last remaining strongholds to Caliph Al-Walid I. The North African campaigns were part of the century ...

, only to reappear in the 11th century work of

al-Idrisi Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi (; ; 1100–1165), was an Arab Muslim geographer and cartographer who served in the court of King Roger II at Palermo, Sicily. Muhammad al-Idrisi was born in C ...

under the new name of ''Jannād'', after a

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

tribe then living in the area. It was known to medieval European geographers as ''Berengereto''. By the 18th century, Djinet was a small port town serving the farmers of the surrounding lowlands, described by Thomas Shaw in the following terms: : ...we come to the little port of Jinnett, from which a great quantity of grain is shipped off yearly to Christendom. Jinnett is a small creek, with tolerably good anchoring grounds before it; and was probably Edrisi's Mers' el Dajaje, or ''Port of Hens''. I was told that Jinnett, or ''Paradise'', was given to this place, on account of a row-boat, which was once very providentially conducted within the creek, when the mariners expected every moment to have perished upon the neighbouring rocks. The area was conquered by France in 1837 in the wake of the First Battle of the Issers, and remained under French rule until Algeria's independence in 1962. In 1986, a gas-powered thermal power plant was commissioned at Djinet, manufactured by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

with a capacity of 704 MW.

Ecclesiastical history

Roman Cissi was a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

to the metropolitan of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

. The names of two of its bishops are known: * At a

Conference of Carthage (411) The Councils of Carthage were church synods held during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries in the city of Carthage in Africa. The most important of these are described below. Synod of 251 In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cypr ...

between Catholic and schismatic

Donatist Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to ...

bishops, where their heresy was condemned as such, Cissi was represented only by a Donatist bishop named Flavosus. The

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

adjective referring to Cissi, ''Cissitanus'', is applied to him in the account of that conference. In the 19th century, Morcelli took the adjective ''Cessitanus'' to refer to Cissi, and supposed instead that the name of the Cissi bishop at the conference was Quodvultdeus, whom Ferron rather attributed to the see of Cissita, which was in

Africa Proconsularis Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and presently in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

(Sidi-Tabet?). * In 484, Bishop Reparatus of Cissi was one of the Catholic bishops whom the

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

king

Huneric Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric (died December 23, 484) was King of the (North African) Vandal Kingdom (477–484) and the oldest son of Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was ma ...

of the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

summoned to Carthage and then exiled like most Catholic bishops.Stefano Antonio Morcelli
''Africa christiana''
Volume I, Brescia 1816, p. 138 The diocese was nominally restored in 1933 as the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

of Cissi (). Its bishops have been: * Jean de Capistran Aimé Cayer, OFM (1949.06.17 – 1978.04.13) * Augusto Vargas Alzamora, SJ (1978.06.08 – 1989.12.30) * Olindo Natale Spagnolo Martellozzo, MCCJ (1990.02.02 – 2008.07.23) * Enrique Eguía Seguí (2008.09.04 to present), Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Buenos Aires

Transport

Djinet is connected to the rest of the country through a single main road: RN 24, a coastal road leading to

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

in the west (via Zemmouri) and

Béjaïa Béjaïa ( ; , , ), formerly known as Bougie and Bugia, is a Mediterranean seaport, port city and communes of Algeria, commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in Algeria; it is the capital of Béjaïa Province. Geography Location Béjaïa owes its ...

in the east (via Dellys).

Notable people

References

Citations

Bibliography

GCatholic - (former &) titular bishopric
* . * . * . {{coord, 36, 53, N, 3, 43, E, display=title, region:DZ_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Communes of Boumerdès Province Phoenician colonies in Algeria