David Chaffetz read Persian, Turkish and Arabic at Harvard University under Wheeler Thackston, Anne-Marie Schimmel and Stuart Cary Welch. He worked for the Encyclopedia Iranica under Ehsan Yarshater. He wrote A Journey through Afghanistan. He has travelled extensively in India, Central Asia and China.
Praise for « A Journey through Afghanistan »
“ It is the best thing I have read for giving the "feel" of Afghanistan and its varied peoples, social classes, religious sects…Chaffetz wins confidence with the easy simplicity of his narrative… a charmingly simple story of slipping through a pattern of negotiation, intrigue, cajoling, being passed on by a friend to a friend of his who will in turn become a friend, in order to get the travellers to where they want to go”
Owen Lattimore, Washington Post