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Dictionary of the Khazars
Author(s)	Milorad Pavich
Original title	Хазарски речник; Hazarski rečnik
Translator	Christina Pribicevic-Zoric
Country	Yugoslavia
Language	Serbian
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf (English translation)
Publication date	1984
Published in English	1988
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Dictionary of the Khazars: A Lexicon Novel (Serbian: Хазарски речник / Hazarski rečnik) is the first novel by Serbian writer Milorad Pavić, published in 1984. Originally written in Serbian, the novel has been translated into many languages. It was first published in English by Knopf, New York in 1988.

There is no easily discerned plot in the conventional sense, but the central question of the book (the mass religious conversion of the Khazar people) is based on an historical event generally dated to the last decades of the 8th century or the early 9th century when the Khazar royalty and nobility converted to Judaism, and part of the general population followed.

However, most of the characters and events described in the novel are entirely fictional, as is the culture ascribed to the Khazars in the book, which bears little resemblance to any literary or archeological evidence.

The novel takes the form of three cross-referenced mini-encyclopedias, each compiled from the sources of one of the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). In his introduction to the work, Pavic wrote:

"No chronology will be observed here, nor is one necessary. Hence each reader will put together the book for himself, as in a game of dominoes or cards, and, as with a mirror, he will get out of this dictionary as much as he puts into it, for you [...] cannot get more out of the truth than what you put into it."

The book comes in two different editions, one "Male" and one "Female", which differ in only a critical passage in a single paragraph.

Pavić stated that in his novel Khazars symbolically represent Serbs.

See also

Novels portal

• Khazars in fiction
• Kuzari

References

External links

• Dictionary of the Khazars: a novel by Milorad Pavic, excerpts from "Postmodernism as Nightmare: Milorad Pavic's Literary Demolition of Yugoslavia" by Andrew Wachtel