In this course, we examine six moments of intellectual encounter between “east” and “west” along the storied route of the Silk Road. These encounters spanned a millennium, from the fifth century BCE to the fourteenth century. We will be reading primary sources written by these scholar-travelers – Herodotus, Xuan Zang, Al-Biruni, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Sir John Mandeville – and considering them as both historical and ethnographic sources. Proceeding chronologically, we witness encounters between vastly different intellectual, scientific, cultural, and religious traditions, and consider the ways in which critical thinkers in the past analyzed the wonderful strangeness of their world.