Robert Duncan McChesney (born May 10, 1944, Northampton, Massachusetts)[1] is a scholar of the social and cultural history of Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan.
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Robert D. McChesney received his BA in 1967 and his PhD in 1973 from Princeton University.
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, in particular his monumental history of Afghanistan, Sirajul Tawarikh. McChesney has also written a translation of Fayz Muhammad's 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. [2]
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.
Note: Works have been published under the names Robert D. McChesney, R. D. McChesney, and R. McChesney.
, 1992.
, 1992.