kassabah

See also kassabé.

An Islamic unit of length. From the Arabic qaṣaba. Also romanized as qasaba and gasaba. Doursther says it = 1/1500 parasang = 2 kathouah = 6 hashemite cubits = 8 24-assbaa cubits = 12 pieds = 16 aschbar = 48 cabda = 192 assbaa = 3.84 meters.

In Egypt, surveyors accompanying the French army in its invasion (1798 – 1801) measured the kassabah as 3.75 meters.¹ The value later used by Egyptian customs was about 3.55 meters (about 3.8824 yards).

In the Sudan , 19^th century, about 3.55 meters (about 3.882 yards).²

1. Poids et mesures du Kaire (1804).

2. H[arald] F[rançois] S[aphir] Amery.
English-Arabic Vocabulary for the Use of Officials of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, compiled in the Intelligence Department of the Egyptian Army.
Cairo: Al-Mokattam Printing Office, 1905.