Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Casbah n.

[SE kasbah, ‘the Arab quarter surrounding a castle or fortress in a North African town, esp. that of Algiers’ (OED)]

(S.Afr.) Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

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[SA]L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 113: The ‘Americans’ [youth gang] are known to fight back effectively ‘for the right to live and love freely’ in ‘Casbah’, as Sophiatown is popularly known.