Robert D. McChesney

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For the media scholar and critic, see Robert W. McChesney.

Robert D. McChesney is a scholar of the social and cultural history of Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Contents

[edit] Academic career

Robert D. McChesney received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1973.

McChesney’s academic focus has been on the history Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan from the time of the Mongol conquest through the early 20th century. Much of his work has centered on the connection of social history and architecture and the Islamic charitable institutions that supported architecture. He has taken a particular interest in the works of Afghan scholar Fayz Muhammad, including the translation of his account of the 1929 Afghan Civil War. He has made frequent contributions to Encyclopædia Iranica. McChensney is held in high regard by his peers for his meticulous use of primary sources and fluency in several languages. [1]

He retired in 2007 as a professor of Middle Eastern Studies and History at the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University.

McChesney is also the director of the Afghanistan Digital Library, a project to create an online library of rare books from Afghanistan. The project began in response to the destruction and looting of many library collections and private book collections during the several decades of war in Afghanistan in recent decades.

[edit] Works by Robert D. McChesney

Note: Works have been published under the names Robert D. McChesney, R. D. McChesney, and R. McChesney.

  • "Architecture and Narrative: The Khwaja Abu Nasr Shrine." Muqarnas, vol. 18 (2001) (Part One: Constructing the Complex and Its Meaning, 1469-1696) and vol. 19 (2002) (Part Two: Representing the Complex in Word and Image, 1696-1998).

, 1992.

, 1992.

  • Charity and Philanthropy in Islam: Institutionalizing the Call to Do Good. (Indianapolis: Indian University Press, 1995)
  • "Economic and Social Aspects of the Public Architecture of Bukhara in the 1560s and 1570s," Islamic Art, v. 2, 1987.
  • Written by Fayz Muhammad. Translated by R.D. McChesney. Kabul Under Siege: Fayz Muhammad's Account of the 1929 Uprising. (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1999.)
  • "Four Sources on Shah Abbas's Building of Isfahan," Muqarnas, v. 5, 1988.
  • "Reconstructing Balkh: The Vakfiya of 947/1540." Studies on Central Asian History, ed. Devin DeWeese (Bloomington 2001).
  • "Waqf and public policy: the waqfs of Shāh 'Abbās 1011-23/1602-14" Asian and African Studies v. 15, no. 2, (July 1981), 165-90
  • "Zamzam Water on a White Felt Carpet: Adapting Mongol Ways in Muslim Central Asia, 1550-1650," in Michael Gervers and Wayne Schlepp, eds., Religion, Customary Law, and Nomadic Technology (Toronto, 2000).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robert D. McChesney (2005). Robert D. McChesney. New York University. Retrieved on 2006-08-13.

[edit] External links

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