David Chaffetz

Background

About David Chaffetz

David Chaffetz David Chaffetz is an independent scholar with a lifelong passion for Middle Eastern and Inner Asian history. His most recent book,"Raiders, Rulers, and Traders," earned praise from the NY Times, the Economist, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. His 1981 book, several times republished, A Journey through Afghanistan, earned praise from Owen Lattimore, the then doyen of Inner Asian studies in America and the UK. He is a regular contributor to the Asian Review of Books, and has written for the South China Morning Post and the Nikkei Asian Review. His most recent book, Three Asian Divas, describes the important role of elite women entertainers in the transmission of traditional Asian culture. A graduate of Harvard University, Chaffetz had the privilege of studying with two great scholars of Inner Asia, Richard Frye and Joseph Fletcher. At Columbia University he was editor of the Columbia Journal of International Affairs and a student of the noted Central Asian specialist, Edward Allworth. In the forty years since, he has extensively traveled in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Russia in Asia. Chaffetz reads and performs research in over 10 languages, including Persian, Turkish and Russian. He is a member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Explorers Club, and the Gremio Literario (Literary Society) of Lisbon. He lives in Lisbon.