John Curry (History) joined a National Endowment for the Humanities grant application as part of a project team for the "Khataynameh ("Book of China") Translation Project."

Headed by Kaveh Hemmat of Benedictine University, the proposal has just been funded at $195,764, and will produce an edited volume, translation and commentary of the Khataynameh, which is a description of the Ming Dynasty state written in Persian in 1516 for the Ottoman court by the merchant Ali Akbar Khatayi. This book is the longest and most substantial description of China written in any non-East Asian language before the establishment of regular maritime contact between Europe and China in the mid-16th century. No English translation has yet been published, and while the book has been translated into Turkish, Chinese, French and Persian, most of these translations are inaccessible or poorly serve the needs of scholars. Curry will serve as the resident team expert on the Ottoman Turkish variants of the text.