The Indio-British writer has been one of the most important representatives of contemporary world literature since the early 1980s. With the publication of his “Satanic Verses” in 1988, Salman Rushdie aroused the displeasure of Islamic fundamentalism, under whose religious Feme ruling, the fatwa, he has since been forced to live in constant exile and under constant threat for more than two decades. His style was based on allegorical narratives that had political and historical contexts as a background. Ahmed Salman Rushdie adorns his stories with fantastic elements from the world of fairy tales. This blending of myth and fantasy with real life is sometimes referred to as magical realism…
Ahmed Salman Rushdie comes from Bombay, India, where he was born on June 19, 1947 into a Muslim family.
His father, Anis Ahmed Rushdie, belonged to the city’s educated middle class and was a successful businessman. Rushdie grew up in wealthy circumstances in Bombay and was sent to English rugby at the age of 14, where he received a good education. In 1964, Rushdie, who exchanged his native Indian language for English, became a British citizen. After school, Rushdie studied history at Cambridge College. He then began working in journalism, theater and advertising until 1980.
In 1976, Rushdie married Clarissa Luard, with whom he has one son and remained together until 1987. From the early 1970s, Rushdie was also active as a writer. In 1975 he published his first novel, Grimus. However, he achieved his first international success, especially on the Anglo-Saxon literary market, with the book “Midnight’s Children”, which tells the fate of a family in India’s transition to independence and was also published in 1981 in a German translation (“Midnight’s Children”). Rushdie’s style was based on allegorical narratives, which had political and historical background as a background, but were enriched with fantastic elements from the world of fairy tales.
In this way he provoked the western literary scene with his third novel “Shame”, which was published in German in 1983 (“Scham und Schnde”). Although the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988 marked another success for the author, the work did not go unchallenged. In particular, the satirical account of the life of the Prophet Mohammed contained therein was seen by Muslim readers as a violation of their religious self-image. The Islamic protest against the book that began now reached its climax in February 1989: Iranian head of state Khomeini sentenced the provocative writer to death and called on Muslims all over the world to carry out the sentence.
The implementation of the “Fatwa”, Khomeini’s Feme verdict, was to be accelerated by a bounty in the millions. Despite an apology by Rushdie to the Muslim community, Iran continued to uphold the fatwa after Khomeini’s death in June 1989; In 1991, Rushdie’s bounty was even doubled. From then on, the persistent death threat forced the writer to live under police protection and in constantly changing, secret places of residence. In 1988, Rushdie married the American writer Marianne Wiggins, who shared his exile with him until they separated in 1993.
Despite numerous threats against the publishers and, in some cases, successful assassination attempts against the translators of the book, “The Satanic Verses” enjoyed tremendous distribution throughout the world. At the beginning of the 1990s, Rushdie broke through his previously isolated exile by traveling extensively. During visits to Europe, Canada and the USA, he advocated the right to freedom of expression in meetings with the respective heads of government. From the mid-1990s, the Iranian government was beginning to give in to the international protests against the fatwa, which the rulers in Tehran were now increasingly distancing themselves from.
On the other hand, fundamentalist Islamist circles continued to uphold the death sentence. In 1998, at a UN convention, the Iranian President declared the Rushdie case closed. In an official statement, the government of Tehran distanced itself from the fatwa imposed on Rushdie, which according to religious-Islamic views cannot be revoked. The 1999 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet is about the power of love and music. In this work the author follows the mythical story of Orpheus and Eurydice in a modern twist.
Salman Rushdie published his novel Fury in 2001, which is about New York. Since then, Rushdie has led a more liberated, if still not “normal” life, overshadowed by the continued death threat from fundamentalist circles. Salman Rushdie married Elizabeth West in 1997, with whom he has one child. However, the marriage did not last long. In April 2004, Rushdie married model Padma Lakshmi. The marriage was divorced in 2007. In the same year he worked for 5 years as a so-called “Writer in Residence” at the American Emory University.
What is Salman Rushdie famous for?
Salman Rushdie is best known for his fifth book, The Satanic Verses, which prompted a fatwa against him in 1989. But over the past 40 years he has published 16 others, including Midnight’s Children—the winner of three Booker awards—and his latest novel, Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights.
What religion is Salman Rushdie?
Religious background. Rushdie came from a liberal Muslim family, but he is now an atheist. In a 2006 interview with PBS, Rushdie called himself a “hardline atheist”.
Who is Salman Rushdie’s attacker?
Hadi Matar, 24, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges in connection with the attack Aug. 12 at the Chautauqua Institution where he allegedly stabbed the 75-year-old Rushdie about a dozen times in front of a crowd that had gathered for a lecture.
What has Salman Rushdie written?
Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British writer whose allegorical novels examine historical and philosophical issues. He is known for his novels, including Midnight’s Children, Shame, and The Satanic Verses.
Was Salman Rushdie on Seinfeld?
Salman Rushdie, who Kramer (Michael Richards) believes he spotted at the health club , is a real life British Indian writer, whose 1988 fictional book, “Satanic Verses”, was critical of Muslims.
Where do I start with Rushdie?
Midnight’s Children (1981)
Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990)
Shalimar the Clown (2005)
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (2015)
Quichotte (2019)
