AUTHOR'S CONTEXT
author: Herodotus of Halicarnassus
when: ca.484-420 BCE
where: Halicarnassus > Athens > Thurii
context/summary: born in a Dorian city under the Persian yoke; composed for an Ionian (Athenian) elite; oral tales organized into the "first" history, at time of Peloponnesian War

NARRATIVE CONTEXT
title: Historia (“Inquiry”)
when: ca.480 BCE
who: Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, etc.; varied ethnic groups
where: ecumene (i.e. the "inhabited world" as known by the Greeks)
context/summary: opposion of Hellenes ("Greeks") vs barbaroi ("oogah-boogahs") in diametrical opposition and symmetrical balance; cultural relativism (changeable nomos vs unchanging physis); violent men overstepping boundaries (hybris) will get their comeuppance (nemesis)

AUTHOR'S CONTEXT
author: Xuanzang
when: ca.602-664 CE
where: Chang'an (mod. Xi'an)
context/summary: born in Luoyang (Henan) at the end of the Sui dynasty; ordained as a Buddhist priest in Chengdu (Sichuan); enjoyed the patronage of the Tang dynasty emperor Taizong

NARRATIVE CONTEXT
title: Siyu ki (“Records of Regions to the West”)
when: ca.630-645 CE
who: supported by Harsha of Kanauj (aka Kumara-raja, aka Shiladitya-raja), of the Vardhana dynasty, and Bhaskaravarma of Kamarupa (also Kumara-raja “king's son”), a vassal of Harsha, ca.660-650 CE; also supported by Avalokiteshvara-bodhisattva his divine guardian
where: various South Asian Buddist reliquaries (stupas) and monasteries (sangaramas), particularly the Nalanda Monastery (Mahavihara), primary center of Mahayana Buddhist learning
context/summary: opposion of raw vs cooked, Buddhist cosmology with Lake Anavatapta at the center of the ecumene (Jambudvipa), with four rivers leading in the four cardinal directions to the Land of Men (China), Land of Horses (Eurasian steppe), the Land of Gems (Afghanistan) and the Land of Elephants (India)

AUTHOR'S CONTEXT
author: Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī
when: ca.973-1050 CE
where: Khwarizm (or Kiva) > Ghazna (mod. Ġaznī)
context/summary: native Persian speaking scholar, fluent in Arabic, Greek and Hebrew; impressed into the service of Ghaznavid ruler Maḥmūd

NARRATIVE CONTEXT
title: Kitab al-Hind (“On India”), or Taḥqīq mā li-l-hind min maqūlah maqbūlah fī al-ʿaql aw mardhūlah (“Verifying All That the Indians Recount, the Reasonable and the Unreasonable”)
when: ca.1040 CE
who: supported by Maḥmūd of Ghazna (ca.970-1030 CE), then his son and successor, Mas'ud (ca.1030-1040 CE)
where: Indus River basin centers of Hindu learning
context/summary: opposition of Hinduism and Islam; cosmology and cosmogony; science

AUTHOR'S CONTEXT
author: Ibn Battuta, or ʾAbū ʿAbd al-Lāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Lāh al-Lawātī al-Ṭanǧī ibn Baṭūṭah
when: ca.1304-1369 CE
where: Tangier (mod. Ṭanǧa), Morocco (al-Maghrib)
context/summary: Arabic speaking Berber, legal scholar (qadi) of the Maliki school of jurisprudence; took advantage of the pax Mogolica to travel much of the known (Islamic) world

NARRATIVE CONTEXT
title: Riḥlat (“Travels”), subtitled Tuḥfat an-Nuẓẓār fī Gharāʾib al-Amṣār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār (“A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling”), as dictated to Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi al-Gharnati
when: ca.1355 CE
who: numerous rulers and territories, including those he called the "seven mighty" rulers: Abu Inan Faris, the Marinid sultan of Morocco; Al-Malik al-Nasir, Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria; Abu Sa“id, khan of the Two Iraqs (Il-khanate); Ozbeg-khan of the Qipchaq khanate (the steppe); Tarmashirin-khan of Chagatai khanate (Turkestan); Muhammad bin Tughluq, sultan of Dehli (India); and Toghon Temür of the Yuan khanate (China).
where: the entire known Islamic world
context/summary: opposition of the community of Islam (ummah) vs other peoples of the Book (dhimmah); orthodox Sunni vs other sects (e.g. Shia, Nusayri/Alawi); the Malaki school vs other legal schools; etc.

AUTHOR'S CONTEXT
author: Francisco Álvares, S.J.
when: ca.1465-1541 CE
where: Coimbra (Portugal) > Lisboa
context/summary: priest of the Society of Jesus (or Jesuit order); member of embassy sent by Manuel I of Portugal to Abyssinia, specializing in canon law (legal scholar); joined by Armenian Matheus, ambassador from Eleni of Abyssinia to Manuel; witness to tensions between the ambassador, Dom Rodrigo, and his second, Jorge d'Abreu; opening of sea-route to India in age of exploration

NARRATIVE CONTEXT
title: Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias ("A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies")
when: ca.1520-27 CE
who: Álvares, Dom Rodrigo, Matheus, Eleni, Lebna Degnal (Prester John)
where: Abyssinia (mod. Eritrea and Ethiopia); Massawa, Axum/Adua, Lalibela
context/summary: opposition of Roman Catholic and Ethiopian Orthodox (Coptic Christian); language, religion and customs of Abyssinians; political organization