He was born in Paris, son of a wealthy merchant, jeweller of the Place Dauphine, and followed his father's business.

He issued an account of some events to which he was an eyewitness in Persia, entitled Le Couronnement de Soleiman Troisième Paris, 1671.

A learned nobleman, Mirza Sefi, a prisoner in his own palace at Isfahan, had entertained him, instructed him in the Persian language, and assisted him in this work.

He stayed at Isfahan four years, following the court in all its removals, and making particular journeys throughout the land, from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and the river Indus, and visiting several Indian cities.

By these two journeys he realised a considerable fortune, and, deciding to return home, reached Europe in 1677 by a voyage round the Cape of Good Hope.

Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon, and Helvetius acknowledge the value of his writings; and Sir William Jones says he gave the best account of Muslim nations ever published.

The same day he married a Protestant lady, Esther, daughter of M. de Lardinière Peigné, councillor in the Parliament of Rouen, then a refugee in London.

In the prefaces to his works, 1686 and 1711, besides travels he speaks of what he calls 'my favourite desipi,' or 'Notes upon Passages of to the Holy Scriptures, illustrated by Eastern ally Customs and Manners,' as having occupied his time for many years.

When Thomas Harmer published a second edition of his Observations on divers passages of Scripture, 2 vols., London, 1776, 8vo, it was found that he had recovered the lost manuscript in six small volumes with the help of Sir Philip Musgrave, a descendant of Chardin, and had incorporated almost all of them in his work, under the author's name, or signed 'MS.

He left his large Kempton Manor House and estate, Sunbury-on-Thames to his nephew Sir Philip Chardin Musgrave.

The complete book has never been translated into English; in fact, English-language versions contain less than half of the original material.

Early readers commended Chardin's work for its fullness and fidelity, and he received praise from a number of Enlightenment thinkers, among them Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire and Gibbon.

Chardin travelled far and wide, had a good command of the Persian language, and left detailed accounts of the places and people he encountered.

Although there are occasional lapses in his books, he is generally trusted as a reliable witness, and his work has been used as a source for diverse studies on Safavid history, government, economics, anthropology, religion, art and culture.