Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
The Satanic Verses
New York: Viking, 1988
Rare Book Division
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The life of Indian-British author Salman Rushdie was never the same after he published his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. Overall it received positive reviews. However, it was made infamous following multiple violent riots across the globe, as many Muslim communities deemed it blasphemous. On March 7th,1989, Iran’s ruling ayatollah issued a fatwā, a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law, calling for Rushdie’s and his publishers’ death. Rushdie was under 24/7 protection by the British police for 10 years. An attack on Rushdie, in August 2022, left the author permanently injured.
Despite such attempts on his life, Rushdie has remained defiantly public and productive, speaking out against censorship and receiving support from his peers. In 1993, 100 writers and intellectuals from Muslim communities came together for the collection For Rushdie, with the aim of supporting free speech and its importance in the literary world. He was also the president of PEN American Center from 2004 to 2006, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.
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