Castle of Oblivion
castle and political prison in Iran
The Castle of Oblivion (Old Armenian: բերդ Անուշ berd Anush), also known as the Prison of Oblivion or the Fortress of Oblivion, was a castle and political prison of the Sasanian Empire located in Khuzestan in southwestern Iran. According to the Buzandaran Patmutʻiwnkʻ and Procopius' Persian War, the name referred to the fact that it was forbidden to mention the name of the castle or its prisoners. It may be identifiable with the fortress of Agabana mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus as the place of Arshak II's imprisonment. According to Claudia Ciancaglini and Giusto Traina, the Armenian form berd Anush is a borrowing from an unattested Middle Persian name which may be reconstructed as *anōš bard. The form Anyush is a later reinterpretation or Armenianization of the original word, identifying it with the common word anyush 'forgotten'. Ciancaglini argues that the original meaning of the name was not 'Castle of Oblivion'—a sense derived from the Armenian etymological reinterpretation—but rather 'immortal, imperishable fortress' (from Middle Persian anōš 'immortal').
Notable prisoners of the Castle of Oblivion
Arshak II, Arsacid prince, who ruled Armenia as a Roman client from 350 until 367. Captured and imprisoned during Shapur II's invasion of Armenia.
Khosrov IV (or III), Arsacid king of Armenia who was deposed and imprisoned after 387 but was eventually released and reinstated on the throne under Yazdegerd I.
Kavad I, Sasanian king, briefly imprisoned after being deposed by the nobility and clergy in 496.
Notes
References
Sources
Daryaee, Touraj (2009).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Castle of Oblivion” is castle and political prison in Iran. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Castle, Oblivion and castle, not as a finished interpretation.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5740020. Authority coordinates are 32.033, 49.850. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Castle of Oblivion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.