casbah

noun

cas·​bah ˈkaz-ˌbä  ˈkäz- 

variants or Casbah or less commonly kasbah or Kasbah

1

: a North African castle or fortress

2

: the native section of a North African city

Examples of casbah in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Dar Ahlam is a beautiful renovation and realization of a 200-year-old kasbah near Ouarzazate, at the gateway to the Sahara Desert. — Ann Abel, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2024

The views from the kasbah, nestled deep in the hills outside Marrakech, are uniformly spectacular. — Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Oct. 2024

The beauty of its architecture and craftsmanship, with its imperial medinas, impressive casbahs, Mediterranean coastal towns, and colorful Amazigh arts. — Sarah Khan, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Sep. 2021

She was arrested at a hideout in the casbah in 1957 but freed five years later, when Algeria declared independence in 1962, sparking the mass exodus of Europeans from the country. — Washington Post, 9 July 2021

The community’s salmon-pink palette was suggested by the rosy sandstone walls, and its hilltop clubhouse, introduced by a Middle Eastern-style water stair, was placed to overlook the villas like a casbah surveying so many riads. — Peter Haldeman, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2017

Word History

Etymology

French, from Arabic dialect qaṣba

First Known Use

1844, in the meaning defined at sense 1