Pavic’s Dictionary of Khazars

Blog post only

The Dictionary of Khazars (Dictionary of the Khazars – Wikipedia) is a ‘lexicon novel’ by Milorad Pavić, detailing a fictional account of what happened to the Khazar empire (a Jewish empire in the 6th century on the banks of the Caspian Sea that suddenly disappeared without a clear historical explanation (Khazars – Wikipedia)). The novel is a very involved reading experience with conflicting stories, spanning over a thousand years. The novel can be read in any order, but somehow the pieces only fit together if you read all of it. To make matters worse, there’s two versions of the novel (a male and a female version) that are almost identical, except for a very short passage (which somehow changes the central meaning of the novel). This book is not for everyone, but if this description appeals to you, I can highly recommend it.

Even after the novel, you’d still be confused as to why the Khazars ceased to exist. But Pavic, growing up in Eastern Europe, was surrounded by histories that suddenly stopped, sometimes without any written record explaining why. History can be unforgiving affair. If you get caught up in the wrong currents or make a few wrong decisions, entire peoples can be wiped away. This doesn’t mean everyone was killed, more likely elites were killed and survivors assimilated into different ethnic groups, leaving only scant traces.

In present day, written records will probably survive even if economic ruin befalls on us. But we too fool ourselves that we are master of our own fate. In the end, the forces of history can fall beyond us. Global changes and challenges (eg climate change, changing world demographics and digitilization) change the world we operate in. If approached tactically and without emotional judgement, we may be able to navigate these and adapt. But some changes may be too big to stop. Politicians too often describe these challenges as question of political will and personal effort alone. But it may pay to be more humble about how much power we have over our circumstances. If we fight windmills, we might find ourselves and our ideas swept away by history. Just like the Khazars.

Obvious disclaimers: this is not advice. These views are my own and do not necessarily represent my employer.