WIKIPEDIA: "The Casbah (Arabic: قصبة‎, qasba, meaning citadel) is specifically the citadel of Algiers and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, kasbah denotes the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns. The word made its way into English from French in the late 19th century (the Oxford English Dictionary says 1895), and continues to be spelled as acquired from that language."