kaz-buh, -bah, kahz- citadel; a walled central area of a town or city in North Africa, especially Algiers. Also, the older quarter of such a town or city.
The word was popularized in Western cultures in the early 1980s thanks to the song "
Rock the Casbah" by British punk band The Clash. The song's lyrics have undergone multiple convoluted interpretations since it was released in 1982. The lyrics of the song are better understood if one knows how the song came to be written. In short, they describe an Arab king's (called a "sharif," a noble who is a direct descendant of
the Prophet Muhammad) efforts to stop his subjects from listening to Western music, such as ordering his military's jet fighters to bomb any people in violation of the ban. The pilots ignore the order, and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios. The population then proceed to "
rock the casbah" by dancing to the music. This scenario was inspired by the ban on Western music in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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, "California’s Marrakesh: A
Country Club That’s Chic Again," 26 Apr. 2017
