After his fourth novel,The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats because of what was seen by some to be an irreverentdepiction of Muhammad. This included afatwa calling for his death issued byRuhollah Khomeini, thesupreme leader of Iran. The book was banned in 20 countries.[5] Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdiesurvived a stabbing at theChautauqua Institution inChautauqua, New York, that led to loss of his right eye and damage to his liver and hands.[6][7]
Rushdie was born inBombay on 19 June 1947[17] inBritish India, into aKashmiri Muslim family.[18][19] He is the son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, aCambridge-educated lawyer-turned-businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher. Rushdie's father was dismissed from theIndian Civil Services (ICS) after it emerged that the birth certificate submitted by him had changes to make him appear younger than he was.[20] Rushdie has three sisters.[21] He wrote in his memoir,Joseph Anton, that his father adopted the name Rushdie in honour ofAverroes (Ibn Rushd). He recalls his "first literary influence:" "When I first sawThe Wizard of Oz it made a writer of me."[22] He recalls "Every child in India in my day (and probably still) was obsessed withP. G. Wodehouse andAgatha Christie. I read mountains of books by both."[23]
He also recalls that "Alice captured my imagination as few other books did: both the books, not justAlice's Adventures in Wonderland butThrough the Looking-Glass as well, and I can still recite the whole of "Jabberwocky" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from memory. I also loved theSwallows and Amazons series byArthur Ransome because of the unimaginable freedom those young people sailing in the Lake District were given by their families ... When I was 16, I readThe Lord Of The Rings and became obsessed, and can still recite the inscription on the Ruling Ring ('One ring to rule them all...') in the dark language of Mordor. I read an astonishing amount of Golden Age science fiction, not justRay Bradbury,Arthur C. Clarke andKurt Vonnegut but more arcane writers likeClifford D. Simak,James Blish,Zenna Henderson andL. Sprague de Camp."[24] He has written about his family following the Indian custom of kissing holy books if they were dropped on the floor. "But we kissed everything. We kissed dictionaries and atlases. We kissedEnid Blyton novels andSuperman comics. If I'd ever dropped the telephone directory I'd probably have kissed that, too."[25][26]
Rushdie worked as acopywriter for the advertising agencyOgilvy & Mather, where he came up with "irresistibubble" forAero and "Naughty but Nice" for cream cakes, and for the agencyAyer Barker (until 1982), for whom he wrote the line "That'll do nicely" forAmerican Express.[27] Collaborating with musicianRonnie Bond, Rushdie wrote the words for an advertising record on behalf of the now defunctBurnley Building Society that was recorded atGood Earth Studios, London. The song was called "The Best Dreams" and was sung byGeorge Chandler.[28] It was while at Ogilvy that Rushdie wroteMidnight's Children, before becoming a full-time writer.[29][30][31] Rushdie was a personal friend ofAngela Carter's, calling her "the first great writer I ever met".[32][33]
Rushdie’s works are often categorized aspostmodern, particularly within the tradition ofMagic Realism. However, they also reveal early signs of a literary and cultural shift beyond postmodernism. In our contemporary world – saturated with reality TV, talk shows and other forms of pure entertainment – apathy, passivity and inaction have become defining features.Jeffrey T. Nealon identifies this prevailing sense of disengagement as a hallmark of the post-postmodern condition, which is sometimes referred to asmetamodernism: “we post-postmodern capitalists are trained by our media masters to watch rather than act, consume rather than do.”[34] The overt political tensions of the Cold War era have been replaced by a more insidious, media-driven culture of distraction and spectacle. In response, Rushdie's works blend fantasy with realism to jolt readers out of this stupor, challenging delusions and encouraging renewed critical awareness.
Rushdie's debut, the science fiction taleGrimus (1975), was generally ignored by the public and literary critics. His next novel,Midnight's Children (1981), put him on the map. It follows the life of Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight as India gained its independence, who is endowed with special powers and a connection to other children born at thebirth of the modern nation of India. Sinai has been compared to Rushdie.[35] However, Rushdie refuted the idea of having written any of his characters as autobiographical, stating, "People assume that because certain things in the character are drawn from your own experience, it just becomes you. In that sense, I've never felt that I've written an autobiographical character."[36] Rushdie writes of his "debt to the oral narrative traditions of India and also to the great novelistsJane Austen andCharles Dickens—Austen for her portraits of brilliant women caged by the social convention of their time, women whose Indian counterparts I knew well; Dickens for his great, rotting, Bombay-like city, and his ability to root his larger-than-life characters and surrealist imagery in a sharply observed, almost hyperrealistic background."[37]
Shortly after its publication,V. S. Pritchett wrote: "In Salman Rushdie, the author ofMidnight's Children, India has produced a glittering novelist—one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling. LikeGarcía Marquez inOne Hundred Years of Solitude, he weaves a whole people's capacity for carrying its inherited myths—and new ones that it goes on generating—into a kind of magic carpet. The human swarm swarms in every man and woman as they make their bid for life and vanish into the passion or hallucination that hangs about them like the smell of India itself. Yet at the same time there are strange Western echoes, of the irony ofSterne inTristram Shandy—that early nonlinear writer—in Rushdie's readiness to tease by breaking off or digressing at the gravest moments. This is very odd in an Indian novel! The book is really about the mystery of being born and the puzzle of who one is."[38]Midnight's Children won the 1981Booker Prize and, in 1993 and 2008, theBest of the Bookers and Booker of Bookers special prizes.[39]
Rushdie wrote a non-fiction book aboutNicaragua in 1987 calledThe Jaguar Smile. This book has a political focus and is based on his first-hand experiences and research at the scene ofSandinista political experiments. He became interested in Nicaragua after he had been a neighbour ofMadame Somoza, wife of the former Nicaraguan dictator, and his son Zafar was born around the time of the Nicaraguan revolution.[41]
The Satanic Verses andHaroun and the Sea of Stories, 1988–1990
His most controversial work,The Satanic Verses, was published in 1988 and won theWhitbread Award.[42] It was followed byHaroun and the Sea of Stories (1990). Written in the shadow of the fatwa, it is about the magic of story-telling and an allegorical defence of the power of stories over silence.[17]
In 1990, Rushdie reviewedThomas Pynchon'sVineland inThe New York Times, and offered some droll musings on the author's reclusiveness: "So he wants a private life and no photographs and nobody to know his home address. I can dig it, I can relate to that (but, like, he should try it when it's compulsory instead of a free-choice option)."[43] Rushdie recalls: "I was able to meet the famously invisible man. I had dinner with him atSonny Mehta's apartment inManhattan and found him very satisfyingly Pynchonesque. At the end of dinner I thought, well, now we're friends, and maybe we'll see each other from time to time. He never called again."[44]
FollowingFury (2001), set mainly in New York and avoiding the previous sprawling narrative style that spans generations, periods and places, Rushdie's novelShalimar the Clown (2005), a story about love and betrayal set inKashmir andLos Angeles, was hailed as a return to form by a number of critics.[17]
In his 2002 non-fiction collectionStep Across This Line, he professes his admiration forItalo Calvino and Pynchon, among others. His early influences includedJorge Luis Borges,Mikhail Bulgakov,Lewis Carroll andGünter Grass. When asked who his favorite novelist is, he says: "There are days when it'sKafka, in whose world we all live; others when it'sDickens, for the sheer fecundity of his imagination and the beauty of his prose. But it's probablyJoyce on more days than anyone else."[23]
2008 saw the publication ofThe Enchantress of Florence, one of Rushdie's most challenging works that focuses on the past. It tells the story of a European's visit toAkbar's court, and his revelation that he is a lost relative of theMughal emperor. The novel was praised byUrsula Le Guin in a review inThe Guardian as a "sumptuous mixture of history with fable".[47]Luka and the Fire of Life, a sequel toHaroun and the Sea of Stories, was published in November 2010 to critical acclaim.[17] Earlier that year, he announced that he was writing his memoir,Joseph Anton: A Memoir, which was published in September 2012.[48]
In 2012, Rushdie became one of the first major authors to embraceBooktrack (a company that synchronises ebooks with customised soundtracks), when he published his short story "In the South" on the platform.[49]
2015 saw the publication ofTwo Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, a modern take on theOne Thousand and One Nights. Based on the conflict of scholarIbn Rushd (from whom Rushdie's family name derives), Rushdie explores themes oftransnationalism andcosmopolitanism by depicting a war of the universe with a supernatural world ofjinns.Ursula K. Le Guin wrote: "Rushdie is ourScheherazade, inexhaustibly enfolding story within story and unfolding tale after tale with such irrepressible delight that it comes as a shock to remember that, like her, he has lived the life of a storyteller in immediate peril. Scheherazade told her 1,001 tales to put off a stupid, cruel threat of death; Rushdie found himself under similar threat for telling an unwelcome tale. So far, like her, he has succeeded in escaping. May he continue to do so."[50]
Rushdie has mentored younger Indian (and ethnic-Indian) writers, influenced an entire generation ofIndo-Anglian writers, and is an influential writer inpostcolonial literature in general.[63] He opposed the British government's introduction of theRacial and Religious Hatred Act, something he writes about in his contribution toFree Expression Is No Offence, a collection of essays by several writers, published byPenguin in November 2005.
Salman Rushdie having a discussion withEmory University students
Rushdie was the President ofPEN American Center from 2004 to 2006 and founder of thePEN World Voices Festival.[64] In 2007, he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence atEmory University inAtlanta, Georgia, where he has also deposited his archives. In May 2008, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[65] In 2014, he taught a seminar on British Literature and served as the 2015 keynote speaker[66][67] In September 2015, he joined theNew York University Journalism Faculty as a Distinguished Writer in Residence.[68]
Rushdie is a member of the advisory board ofThe Lunchbox Fund,[69] a non-profit organisation that provides daily meals to students of township schools inSoweto of South Africa. He is a member of the advisory board of theSecular Coalition for America,[70] an advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic and humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C., and a patron ofHumanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association). He is a laureate of theInternational Academy of Humanism.[71] In November 2010 he became a founding patron ofRalston College, a new liberal arts college that has adopted as its motto a Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech is life itself") from an address he gave atColumbia University in 1991 to mark the 200th anniversary of theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution.[72]
Though he enjoys writing, Rushdie says he would have become an actor if his writing career had not been successful. From early childhood, he dreamed of appearing in Hollywood films (which he later realised in his frequent cameo appearances).[73]
Rushdie includes fictional television and movie characters in some of his writings. He had acameo appearance in the filmBridget Jones's Diary based on thebook of the same name, which is itself full of literary in-jokes. On 12 May 2006, Rushdie was a guest host onThe Charlie Rose Show, where he interviewedIndo-Canadian filmmakerDeepa Mehta, whose 2005 filmWater faced violent protests. He appears in the role ofHelen Hunt'sobstetrician-gynaecologist in the film adaptation (Hunt's directorial debut) ofElinor Lipman's novelThen She Found Me. In September 2008, and again in March 2009, he appeared as a panellist on the HBO programmeReal Time with Bill Maher. Rushdie has said that he was approached for a cameo inTalladega Nights: "They had this idea, just one shot in which three very, very unlikely people were seen asNASCAR drivers. And I think they approachedJulian Schnabel,Lou Reed, and me. We were all supposed to be wearing the uniforms and the helmet, walking in slow motion with the heat haze." In the end, their schedules did not allow for it.[74]
In 2009, Rushdie signed a petition in support of film directorRoman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.[75]
Rushdie announced in June 2011 that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series for the US cable networkShowtime, a project on which he will also serve as an executive producer. The new series, to be calledThe Next People, will be, according to Rushdie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his US agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more creative control than feature film.The Next People is being made by the British film production companyWorking Title, the firm behind projects includingFour Weddings and a Funeral andShaun of the Dead.[81]
In 2017, Rushdie appeared as himself in episode 3 of season 9 ofCurb Your Enthusiasm,[82] sharing scenes withLarry David to offer advice on how Larry should deal with thefatwa that has been ordered against him.[83][84]
The publication ofThe Satanic Verses byViking Penguin Publishing in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in theIslamic world because of what was seen by some to be an irreverentdepiction of prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputedMuslim tradition that is referenced in the book. According to this tradition, prophet Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (Ayah) to theQuran accepting three Arabian pagan goddesses who were worshiped inMecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, sayingthe devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of theArchangel Gabriel. Thebook was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities, including India, Iran, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, and Pakistan. In total, 20 countries banned the book.[5]
In response to the protests, on 22 January 1989, Rushdie published a column inThe Observer that called Muhammad "one of the great geniuses of world history," but noted that Islamic doctrine holds Muhammad to be human, and in no way perfect. He held that the novel is not "an anti-religious novel. It is, however, an attempt to write about migration, its stresses and transformations."[85]
On 14 February 1989—Valentine's Day, and also the day of his close friendBruce Chatwin's funeral—afatwa ordering Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran byAyatollahKhomeini, theSupreme leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam". Chapter IV of the book depicts the character of anImam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety. According to Khomeini's son, his father never read the book.[86]A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death,[87] and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years.[87] On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom andIran brokediplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.[88]
In 1989,The New York Times published "Words For Salman Rushdie": "28 distinguished writers born in 21 countries speak to him from their common land – the country of literature. For expressing their ideas publicly in the past many of these writers have suffered censorship, exile – forced or self-imposed – and imprisonment."Czesław Miłosz wrote: "I have particular reasons to defend your rights, Mr. Rushdie. My books have been forbidden in many countries or have had whole passages censored out. I'm grateful to people who stood then by the principle of free expression, and I back you now in my turn."Ralph Ellison: "You deserve the full and passionate solidarity of any man of dignity, but I am afraid this is too little. This story of a man alone against worldwide intolerance, and of a book alone against the craziness of the media, can become the story of many others. The bell tolls for all of us."Umberto Eco: "Keep to your convictions. Try to protect yourself. A death sentence is a rather harsh review."Anita Desai: "Silence, exile and cunning, yes. And courage."[89]
Christopher Hitchens recalled: "When theWashington Post telephoned me on Valentine's Day 1989 to ask for my opinion about the Ayatollah Khomeini'sfatwah, I felt at once here was something that completely committed me. It was, if I can phrase it like this, a matter of everything I hated versus everything I loved. In the hate column: dictatorship, religion, stupidity, demagogy, censorship, bullying, and intimidation. In the love column: literature, irony, humour, the individual, and the defense of free expression. Plus, of course, friendship–although I'd like to think my response would have been the same even if I hadn't known Salman at all. To re-state the premise of the argument again: the theocratic head of a foreign despotism offers money in his own name in order to suborn the murder of a civilian of another country, for the offense of writing a work of fiction. No more root-and-branch challenge to the values ofthe Enlightenment (on the bicentennial of thefall of the Bastille), or to theFirst Amendment to the Constitution, could be imagined."[90] Rushdie wrote: "I have often been asked if Christopher defended me because he was my close friend. The truth is that he became my close friend because he wanted to defend me ... He and I found ourselves describing our ideas, without conferring, in almost identical terms. I began to understand that while I had not chosen the battle it was at least the right battle, because in it everything that I loved and valued (literature, freedom, irreverence, freedom, irreligion, freedom) was ranged against everything I detested (fanaticism, violence, bigotry, humorlessness, philistinism, and the new offense culture of the age). Then I read Christopher using exactly the same everything-he-loved-versus-everything-he-hated trope, and felt … understood."[91]
In 1993, 100 writers and intellectuals from the Muslim world, includingAdonis,Mohammed Arkoun,Mahmoud Darwish,Amin Maalouf andEdward Said expressed solidarity in the collectionFor Rushdie.Naguib Mahfouz wrote: "The veritable terrorism of which he is a target is unjustifiable, indefensible. One idea can only be opposed by other ideas. Even if the punishment is carried out, the idea as well as the book will remain."Tahar Ben Jelloun wrote that the fatwa was "intolerable, inadmissible and has nothing to do with the tolerant Islam that I was taught" and threatened "the ability to create characters and develop them in the space and time chosen by the writer."Rabah Belamri wrote "A society that refuses to question itself, that denies artists and thinkers the right to raise doubts, that dares not laugh at itself, has no hope of prospering." The composerAhmed Essyad wrote a piece of music dedicated "To Salman Rushdie, so that, as an artist, he can write what I disagree with." Rushdie expressed gratitude for "anthology of blows struck in the fight against obscurantism and fanaticism" by "the most gifted, the most learned, the most important voices of the Muslim and Arab world, gathered together to subject my work and the furor surrounding it to so brilliant, so many-sided, so judicious an examination."[92]
When, onBBC Radio 4, he was asked for a response to the threat, Rushdie said, "Frankly, I wish I had written a more critical book," and "I'm very sad that it should have happened. It's not true that this book is a blasphemy against Islam. I doubt very much that Khomeini or anyone else in Iran has read the book or more than selected extracts out of context."[93] Later, he wrote that he was "proud, then and always", of that statement; while he did not feel his book was especially critical of Islam, "a religion whose leaders behaved in this way could probably use a little criticism."[94]
The publication of the book and thefatwa sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed.[95] Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies,burning copies of the book.[96] Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.[b] Many more people died in riots in some countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwa, Rushdie made a public appearance at London'sWembley Stadium on 11 August 1993, during aconcert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassistAdam Clayton recalled that "lead vocalist Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."[97]
On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with the UK, the Iranian government, then headed byMohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."[98][99]
Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.[100] In early 2005, Khomeini'sfatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's current leader,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making theannual pilgrimage toMecca.[101] Additionally, theRevolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.[102]
Rushdie has reported that he still receives a "sort ofValentine's card" from Iran each year on 14 February letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him and has jokingly referred to it as "my unfunny Valentine".[103] He said: "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat."[104] Despite the threats on Rushdie personally, he said that his family has never been threatened, and that his mother, who lived in Pakistan during the later years of her life, even received outpourings of support. Rushdie himself has been prevented from entering Pakistan, however.[105]
A former bodyguard to Rushdie, Ron Evans, planned to publish a book recounting the behaviour of the author during the time he was in hiding. Evans said Rushdie tried to profit financially from thefatwa and was suicidal, but Rushdie dismissed the book as a "bunch of lies" and took legal action against Evans, his co-author and their publisher.[106] On 26 August 2008, Rushdie received an apology at the High Court in London from all three parties.[107] A memoir of his years of hiding,Joseph Anton, was released on 18 September 2012; "Joseph Anton" was Rushdie's secret alias during the height of the controversy.[108]
In February 1997,Ayatollah Hasan Sane'i, leader of thebonyad panzdah-e khordad (Fifteenth of Khordad Foundation),reported that the blood money offered by the foundation for the assassination of Rushdie would be increased from $2 million to $2.5 million.[109] Then a semi-official religious foundation in Iran increased the reward it had offered for the killing of Rushdie from $2.8 million to $3.3 million.[110]
In November 2015, former Indian ministerP. Chidambaram acknowledged that banningThe Satanic Verses was wrong.[111][112] In 1998, Iran's former presidentMohammad Khatami proclaimed the fatwa "finished"; but it has never been officially lifted, and in fact has been reiterated several times by Ali Khamenei and other religious officials. Yet more money was added to the bounty in February 2016.[113]
On 3 August 1989, while a man using the alias[114] Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded withRDX explosives in a hotel inPaddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh. A previously unknown Lebanese group, the Organization of the Mujahidin of Islam, said he died preparing an attack "on theapostate Rushdie". There is a shrine in Tehran'sBehesht-e Zahra cemetery for Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh that says he was "Martyred in London, 3 August 1989. The first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie." Mazeh's mother was invited to relocate to Iran, and the Islamic World Movement of Martyrs' Commemoration built his shrine in the cemetery that holds thousands of Iranian soldiers slain in theIran–Iraq War.[98]
In 1991 an Italian translator of the book was stabbed but survived. Days laterHitoshi Igarashi, its Japanese translator, was stabbed to death. Two years later its Norwegian publisher,William Nygaard, was shot three times but survived.[115]
During the 2006Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy,Hezbollah leaderHassan Nasrallah declared that "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini'sfatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so. I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that."[116]
In 1990, soon after the publication ofThe Satanic Verses, aPakistani film entitledInternational Gorillay (International Guerillas) was released that depicted Rushdie as a "James Bond-style villain" plotting to cause the downfall of Pakistan by opening a chain of casinos and discos in the country; he is ultimately killed at the end of the movie. The film was popular with Pakistani audiences, and it "presents Rushdie as aRambo-like figure pursued by four Pakistani guerrillas".[117] TheBritish Board of Film Classification refused to allow it a certificate; "it was felt that the portrayal of Rushdie might qualify as criminal libel, causing a breach of the peace as opposed to merely tarnishing his reputation." This effectively prevented the release of the film in the UK. Two months later, however, Rushdie himself wrote to the board, saying that while he thought the film "a distorted, incompetent piece of trash", he would not sue if it were released. He later said, "If that film had been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it". While the film was a great hit in Pakistan, it went virtually unnoticed elsewhere.[118]
Rushdie expressed his support forCharlie Hebdo, saying "I stand withCharlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity ... religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today."[124] In response to the attack, Rushdie commented on what he perceived asvictim-blaming in the media, stating: "You can dislikeCharlie Hebdo.... But the fact that you dislike them has nothing to do with their right to speak. The fact you dislike them certainly doesn't in any way excuse their murder."[125][126]
Rushdie was due to appear at theJaipur Literature Festival in January 2012 inJaipur, Rajasthan, India.[127] However, he later cancelled his event appearance, and a further tour of India at the time, citing a possible threat to his life as the primary reason.[128][129] Several days after, he indicated that state police agencies had lied, in order to keep him away, when they informed him that paid assassins were being sent to Jaipur to kill him. Police contended that they were afraid Rushdie would read from the bannedThe Satanic Verses, and that the threat was real, considering imminent protests by Muslim organizations.[130]
Meanwhile, Indian authorsRuchir Joshi,Jeet Thayil,Hari Kunzru andAmitava Kumar abruptly left the festival, and Jaipur, after reading excerpts from Rushdie's banned novel at the festival. The four were urged to leave by organizers as there was a real possibility they would be arrested.[131]
A proposed video link session between Rushdie and the Jaipur Literature Festival was also cancelled at the last minute[132] after the government pressured the festival to stop it.[130] Rushdie returned to India to address a conference in New Delhi on 16 March 2012.[133]
On 12 August 2022, while about to start a lecture at theChautauqua Institution inChautauqua, New York, Rushdie was attacked by a man who rushed onto the stage and stabbed him repeatedly, including in the face, neck and abdomen.[134][135] The attacker was pulled away before being taken into custody by astate trooper; Rushdie was airlifted toUPMC Hamot, a tertiary trauma center inErie, Pennsylvania, where he underwent surgery before being put on a ventilator.[134][136]
Security measures at UPMC Hamot were increased due to the potential threat of further attempts on his life. This included 24-hour protection with a security officer outside his room and searches being performed upon entry into the hospital. The suspect was identified as 24-year-oldHadi Matar ofFairview, New Jersey.[134][137][138] Later in the day, Rushdie's agent,Andrew Wylie, confirmed that Rushdie had received stab injuries to the liver and hand, and that he might lose an eye.[139] A day later, Rushdie was taken off the ventilator and was able to speak.[140][141]
On 23 October 2022, Wylie reported that Rushdie had lost sight in one eye and the use of one hand but survived the murder attempt.[142][143] Rushdie's memoir about the attack,Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, was published in April 2024.[144] It hit number one in the Sunday Times Bestsellers List in the General hardbacks category.[145] In the memoir, Rushdie engages in fictional conversations with the assailant, who is referred to as 'A.'[146]
The jury selection for the trial was originally scheduled to begin on 8 January 2024. However, Matar's lawyer successfully petitioned to delay the trial, arguing that they are entitled to see the memoir and any related materials before Matar stands trial, as the documents constitute evidence.[147]
Rushdie recalled experiencing a vivid dream of being stabbed in an ancientRoman amphitheatre two days before the actual stabbing occurred. The intensity of the dream caused him to consider canceling the event until he eventually decided on attending.[148]
In February 2025, the attacker, Hadi Matar, was found guilty of attempted murder and assault in connection with the stabbing.[149][150][151][152] In May 2025, Matar was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the attack.[153][154]
Salman Rushdie has received many plaudits for his writings, including the European Union'sAristeion Prize for Literature, thePremio Grinzane Cavour (Italy), and the Writer of the Year Award in Germany, and many of literature's highest honours.[155]
Rushdie wasknighted for services to literature in theQueen's Birthday Honours on 16 June 2007. He remarked: "I am thrilled and humbled to receive this great honour, and am very grateful that my work has been recognised in this way."[171] In response to his knighthood, many nations with Muslim majorities protested. Parliamentarians of several of these countries condemned the action, and Iran and Pakistan called in their British envoys to protest formally. Controversial condemnation issued by Pakistan's Religious Affairs MinisterMuhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq was in turn rebuffed by former Prime MinisterBenazir Bhutto.[172] Several called publicly for his death. Some non-Muslims expressed disappointment at Rushdie's knighthood, claiming that the writer did not merit such an honour and there were several other writers who deserved the knighthood more than Rushdie.[173][174]
Al-Qaeda condemned the Rushdie honour. The group's then-leader,Ayman al-Zawahiri, was quoted as saying in an audio recording that the UK's award for Rushdie was "an insult to Islam", and it was planning "a very precise response".[175]
When asked if the knighthood was an insult to Muslims,Christopher Hitchens answered: "Midnight's Children did not just win the Booker, and Salman did not just later win the Booker of Bookers,Midnight's Children won the main literary award in Iran, people tend to forget. When the fatwa was issued against him by a senile theocratic dictator who had run his own country into beggary and bankruptcy and misery, every Arab and Muslim writer worthy of the name, all signed, and wrote in a book for Salman, we identify our cause with you, and your struggle with free expression in our culture. If you say that Muslims are being offended by this, and you lump them all together, you immediately grant that they are in fact represented by the most extreme, homicidal, fanatical, illiterate, intolerant people who not only haven't read this book, but couldn't read it. And that's an insult to Islam!"[176]
Rushdie came from aliberal Muslim family,[178] but he is anatheist. In a 2006 interview withPBS, Rushdie called himself a "hardline atheist".[179]
In 1989, in an interview following thefatwa, Rushdie said that he was in a sense a lapsed Muslim, though "shaped by Muslim culture more than any other," and a student of Islam.[36] In another interview the same year, he said: "My point of view is that of a secular human being. I do not believe in supernatural entities, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu."[180]
In December 1990, Rushdie issued a statement reaffirming his Muslim faith, distancing himself from statements made by characters inSatanic Verses that cast aspersions on Islam or Prophet Mohammad, and opposing the release of the paperback edition of the novel.[181] Later, in 1992, he cited the release of the statement as perhaps his lowest point, regretting its language, which he said he had not written.[182]
Rushdie advocates the application ofhigher criticism, pioneered during the late 19th century. In a guest opinion piece printed inThe Washington Post andThe Times in mid-August 2005, Rushdie called for a reform in Islam.[183]
What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air. ... It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. ... Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of peace.
— Salman Rushdie, "Muslims unite! A new Reformation will bring your faith into the modern era"
We need all of us, whatever our background, to constantly examine the stories inside which and with which we live. We all live in stories, so called grand narratives. Nation is a story. Family is a story. Religion is a story. Community is a story. We all live within and with these narratives. And it seems to me that a definition of any living vibrant society is that you constantly question those stories. That you constantly argue about the stories. In fact the arguing never stops. The argument itself is freedom. It's not that you come to a conclusion about it. And through that argument you change your mind sometimes.… And that's how societies grow. When you can't retell for yourself the stories of your life then you live in a prison.… Somebody else controls the story.… Now it seems to me that we have to say that a problem in contemporary Islam is the inability to re-examine the ground narrative of the religion.… The fact that in Islam it is very difficult to do this, makes it difficult to think new thoughts.
Rushdie is an advocate ofreligious satire. He condemned theCharlie Hebdo shooting and defended comedic criticism of religions in a comment originally posted onEnglish PEN where he called religions a medieval form of unreason. Rushdie called the attack a consequence of "religious totalitarianism", which according to him had caused "a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam". He said:[185]
Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. 'Respect for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.' Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
When asked about reading and writing as a human right, Rushdie states: "...there are the larger stories, the grand narratives that we live in, which are things like nation, and family, and clan, and so on. Those stories are considered to be treated reverentially. They need to be part of the way in which we conduct the discourse of our lives and to prevent people from doing something very damaging to human nature."[186] Though Rushdie believes the freedoms of literature to be universal, the bulk of his fictions portrays the struggles of the marginally underrepresented. This can be seen in his portrayal of the role of women in his 1983 novelShame. In this novel, Rushdie, "suggests that it is women who suffer most from the injustices of the Pakistani social order."[187] His support of feminism can also be seen in a 2015 interview withNew York magazine'sThe Cut.[188]
In 2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments byJack Straw, then-Leader of the House of Commons from Labour, whocriticized the wearing of theniqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said: "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on Straw's side."[189]
Rushdie supported the1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading historianTariq Ali to label Rushdie part of what he considered to be "warrior writers" as "the belligerati".[190] He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove theTaliban in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 but was a vocal critic of the 2003war in Iraq. He stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal ofSaddam Hussein", USunilateral military intervention was unjustifiable.[191]Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work andMarxist literary critic, criticized him, saying he "cheered onthe Pentagon's criminal ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan."[192] Eagleton subsequently apologized for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.[193]
Noting the rise of "populist authoritarian demagoguery" around the world, Rushdie said there was "a willingness amongst at least some part of the [US] population to cease to value the democratic values enshrined in thefirst amendment. So I think the problem is, I would now say, political more than primarily religious".[199]
Amnesty…has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his groupCageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind ofmoral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction. ... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.
In July 2020, Rushdie was one of the 153 signers of the "Harper's Letter", also known as "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate", that expressed concern that "the free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming more constricted."[202] In October 2023, Rushdie expressed his "horror" at bothHamas'attack on Israel andIsrael'sretaliation in theGaza Strip and called for a "cessation in hostilities".[203]
In May 2024, Rushdie argued that if a Palestinian state ever came into being, it would resemble a "Taliban-like state" and become a client state of Iran. He further stated, "There's an emotional reaction to the death in Gaza, and that's absolutely right. But when it slides over towards antisemitism and sometimes to actual support of Hamas, then it's very problematic." He voiced his puzzlement regarding the current support of progressive students for what he described as a "fascist terrorist group".[204][205][206]
Rushdie has been critical of Pakistan's former Prime MinisterImran Khan after Khan took personal jabs at him in a 2012 interview. Khan had called Rushdie "unbalanced", saying he has the "mindset of a small man", claiming they had "never met" and he would never "want to meet him ever", despite the two being spotted together in public numerous times.[207]
Rushdie has expressed his preference for India over Pakistan on numerous occasions in writing and on live television interviews. In one such interview in 2003, Rushdie said "Pakistan sucks" after being asked about why he felt more like an outsider there than in India or England. He cited India's diversity, openness, and "richness of life experience" as his preference over Pakistan's "airlessness", resulting from a lack of personal freedom, widespread public corruption, and inter-ethnic tension.[208][non-primary source needed]
The phrase of "crackdown" that the Indian army uses really is a euphemism of mass destruction. Andrape. And brutalisation. That happens all the time. It's still happening now. ... The decision to treat all Kashmiris as if they're potential terrorists is what has unleashed this, the kind of "holocaust" against the Kashmiri people. And we know ourselves, from most recent events in Europe, how important it is to resist treating all Muslims as if they're terrorists, but the Indian army has taken the decision to do the opposite of that, to actually decide that everybody is a potential combatant to treat them in that way. And the level of brutality is quite spectacular. And, frankly, without that the jihadists would have had very little response from the Kashmiri people who were not really traditionally interested in radical Islam. So now they're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, and that's the tragedy of the place. ... And really what I was trying to do was say exactly that the attraction of the jihad in Kashmir arose out of the activities of the Indian army.
Rushdie has been married five times and has two children; his first four marriages ended in divorce. He was first married to Clarissa Luard,[213] literature officer of theArts Council of England,[214] from 1976 to 1987. The couple had a son, Zafar, born in 1979,[215] who is married to the London-based jazz singerNatalie Coyle.[216] He left Clarissa Luard in the mid-1980s for the Australian writerRobyn Davidson, to whom he was introduced by their mutual friendBruce Chatwin.[217] Rushdie and Davidson never married, and they had split up by the time his divorce from Clarissa came through in 1987. Rushdie's second wife was the American novelistMarianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993.[218][219] His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was British editor and author Elizabeth West;[220][221] they have a son, Milan, born in 1997. After a miscarriage, the couple ended their relationship in 2004.[222][223]
In 2004, very shortly after his third divorce, Rushdie marriedPadma Lakshmi, an Indian-born actress, model, television personality, producer, author, businessperson, and activist. At the time of their first meeting in 1999, Lakshmi was 28, while Rushdie was 51.[224] Rushdie stated that Lakshmi had asked for a divorce in January 2007,[225] and later that year, in July, the couple filed it.[226][227] Padma Lakshmi criticized Rushdie as insecure and spoiled, stating he constantly craved praise and demanded "frequent sex."[228][229][230] She claimed he referred to her as a "bad investment."[231] Lakshmi also said that Rushdie was insensitive to her painfulendometriosis.[229][232][233]
Following his split from Lakshmi, Rushdie was frequently seen with various women, includingRiya Sen, journalistAita Ighodaro, and actressesOlivia Wilde andRosario Dawson, among others.[234][better source needed] In 2009, actress Pia Glenn castigated him as "cowardly, dysfunctional, and immature" after he ditched her via email.[235][234]
In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correctptosis, a problem with the levator palpebrae superioris muscle that causes drooping of the upper eyelid. According to Rushdie, this condition made it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. He said: "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all."[238]
^Nealon, Jeffrey T. (2015). "Post-Postmodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Just-In-Time Capitalism",Supplanting the Postmodern: An Anthology of Writings on the Arts and Culture of the Early 21st Century, New York and London: Bloomsbury, p. 88.
^Martyris, Nina (20 July 2008)."One more bouquet for Saleem Sinai".The Times of India.Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved7 November 2008.Saleem is not Salman (although he marries a Padma) and Saleem's grandfather Dr Aadam Aziz is not him either, but there is a touching prescience at work here. In the opening pages of Midnight's Children, Dr Aziz while bending down on his prayer mat, bumps his nose on a hard tussock of earth. His nose bleeds and his eyes water and he decides then and there that never again will he bow before God or man. "This decision, however, made a hole in him, a vacancy in a vital inner chamber, leaving him vulnerable to women and history." Battered by a fatwa and one femme fatale too many, Salman would have some understanding of this.
^"The 2007 Shortlist". Dublin City Public Libraries/International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. 2007. Archived fromthe original on 29 April 2007. Retrieved5 April 2007.
^Rushdie, Salman (10 September 2012)."The Disappeared".The New Yorker. No. 17 September 2012. p. 50.Archived from the original on 1 July 2014. Retrieved16 September 2012.
^Rubin, Michael (1 September 2006)."Can Iran Be Trusted?". The Middle East Forum: Promoting American Interests.Archived from the original on 26 October 2006. Retrieved10 October 2006.
^Buchta, Wilfried (2000).Who rules Iran?(PDF). The Washington Institute and The Konrad Adenauer. p. 6. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 24 March 2019. Retrieved11 November 2012.
^Tamney, Joseph Bernard (2002).The Resilience of Conservative Religion: The Case of Popular, Conservative Protestant Congregations. Cambridge, UK: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
^Stewart, Scott (22 July 2010)."Fanning the Flames of Jihad".Security Weekly. Stratfor. Archived fromthe original on 6 July 2013.Inspire also features a "hit list" that includes the names of people like Westergaard who were involved in the cartoon controversy as well as other targets such as Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who produced the controversial film Fitna in 2008
^Bruce Chatwin, letter toNinette Dutton, 1 November 1984, inUnder the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin, ed. Elizabeth Chatwin andNicholas Shakespeare, p. 395
^Anthony, Andrew (6 April 2008)."The Bookers' favourite".The Guardian.Archived from the original on 5 September 2022. Retrieved4 September 2022.By this he means the end of his marriage. In January of 2007, Lakshmi asked for a divorce.
