The Castle of Oblivion (Old Armenian: բերդ Անուշ berd Anush),[a] 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.[2] 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.[1] 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'.[3] 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').[4]
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