The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition

The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. The title refers to the Satanic Verses, a possible interpolation in the Qur'an described by Ibn Ishaq in his biography of Muhammad. The disputed verses allow for prayers of intercession to be made to three Pagan Meccan goddesses: Allat, Uzza, and Manah.^[1] The part of the story that deals with the "Satanic verses" in the book "was based on the accounts of the Arab historians al-Waqidi and al-Tabari."^[1] Some Islamic and most non-Muslim Western historians and commentators on the Qur'an have accepted this story of Muhammad's momentary acceptance of the verses. However, a common Muslim viewpoint is that the existence of the verses is just a fabrication created by non-Muslims.^[2] For the novel by Salman Rushdie, see The Satanic Verses. ... The Satanic Verses cover This image is a book cover. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Magic realism (or magical realism) is an artistic genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Viking Press was founded on March 1, 1925, in New York City, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ... Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1990 childrens book[1] by Salman Rushdie. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 391 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (763 × 1170 pixel, file size: 506 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) http://www. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 391 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (763 × 1170 pixel, file size: 506 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) http://www. ... Ahmed Salman Rushdie KBE (Hindi: Urdu: سلمان رشدی; born 19 June 1947) is a British-Indian novelist and essayist. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... See also: 1987 in literature, other events of 1988, 1989 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Muhammad in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman. ... For the novel by Salman Rushdie, see The Satanic Verses. ... Ancient texts come down to us mostly in late handwritten copies, themselves copied from early copies. ... The Qur’ān [1] (Arabic: ;, literally the recitation; also sometimes transliterated as Quran, Koran, or Alcoran) is the central religious text of Islam. ... Ibn Ishaq (or ibn Ishaq), (d. ... Banu Quraish was the dominant tribe of Mecca. ... Mentioned in the Quran (Sura 53:20), Allāt (a contraction of pre-Arabic *al-ilāhat the Goddess) was a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. ... Mentioned in the Quran (Sura 53:20), al-Ê•uzzā the Mightiest One (derived from the root Ê•zy) was a pre-Islamic Arabian fertility goddess who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. ... Mentioned in the Quran (Sura 53:20), Manāt was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca. ... al-Waqidi الواقدي (d. ... Balamis 14th century Persian version of Universal History by al-Tabari Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari 838–923 (father of Jafar, named Muhammad, son of Jarir from the province of Tabaristan, Arabic الطبري), was an author from Persia, one of the earliest, most prominent and famous Persian...

The novel caused much controversy upon its publication, as many Muslims felt that it contained blasphemous references. As the controversy spread, the book was banned in India and burned in demonstrations in the United Kingdom. In mid-February 1989, following a violent riot against the book in Pakistan, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran and a Shi'a Muslim scholar, issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill Rushdie and his publishers, or to point him out to those who can kill him if they cannot themselves. The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition The Satanic Verses Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses. ... Look up blasphemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ayatollah redirects here. ... Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Mustafavi Khomeini ( ) (Persian: روح الله موسوی خمینی RÅ«ollāh MÅ«savÄ« KhomeynÄ« (September 21, 1902 [1]– June 3, 1989) was a Shi`i Muslim cleric, philosopher and marja (religious authority), and the political leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last... The post of Supreme Leader (Persian: رهبر انقلاب, Rahbare Enqelab,[1] lit. ... Shia Islam ( Arabic شيعى follower; English has traditionally used Shiite or Shiite) is the second largest Islamic denomination; some 20-25% of all Muslims are said to follow a Shia tradition. ... A fatwā (Arabic: ; plural fatāwā Arabic: ), is a considered opinion in Islam made by a mufti, a scholar capable of issuing judgments on Sharia (Islamic law). ...

Further information: The Satanic Verses controversy

Following the fatwa, Rushdie was put under police protection by the British government and as of mid 2007 has not been physically harmed. Others connected with the book have not been so lucky. Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese language translator of the book was stabbed to death on July 11, 1991; Ettore Capriolo, the Italian language translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month, and William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October of 1993. The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition The Satanic Verses Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses. ... Hitoshi Igarashi(1947 - July 11, 1991 ja 五十嵐一) was the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses. After a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for the death of the author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran... Japanese  ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people, in Japan and Japanese emigrant communities around the world. ... Ettore Capriolo was an accomplished Italian translator. ... Italian ( , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people,[1] primarily in Italy and Switzerland. ... William Nygaard (born March 16, 1943) is a Norwegian publisher. ... County District Viken Municipality NO-0301 Administrative centre Oslo Mayor (2004) Per Ditlev-Simonsen (H) Official language form BokmÃ¥l Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 224 454 km² 426 km² 0. ...

How much danger remains for Rushdie is ambiguous. In 1998 after some conciliatory statement by Iran, relations between Britain and Iran were normalised and Rushdie declared he would stop living in hiding. But with a more militant government in Iran, other statements by officials in Iran have affirmed the fatwa. On February 14, 2006, the Iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently.^[3]

In the United Kingdom, however, the book garnered great critical acclaim. It was a 1988 Booker Prize Finalist, eventually losing to Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda and won the Whitbread Award for novel of the year.^[4] The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... Peter Philip Carey (born May 7, 1943) is an Australian novelist. ... Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Peter Carey, which won the 1988 Booker Prize. ... Book of the Year Paul Sayer, The Comforts of Madness Childrens Book Winner: Judy Allen, Awaiting Developments First Novel Winner: Paul Sayer, The Comforts of Madness Novel Winner: Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses Biography Winners: A N Wilson, Tolstoy Poetry Winners: Peter Porter, The Automatic Oracle Other Whitbread Awards...

Plot summary

The novel consists of a frame narrative, using elements of magical realism, interlaced with a series of sub-plots that are narrated as dream visions experienced by one of the protagonists. The frame narrative, like many other stories by Rushdie, involves Indian expatriates in contemporary England. The two protagonists, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, are both actors of Indian Muslim background. Farishta is a Bollywood superstar who specializes in playing Hindu deities. Chamcha is an emigrant who has broken with his Indian identity and works as a voice over artist in England. A frame story (also frame tale, frame narrative, etc) is a narrative technique whereby a main story is composed, at least in part, for the purpose of organizing a set of shorter stories, each of which is a story within a story. ... Magic Realism (or Magical Realism) is an illustrative or literary technique in which the laws of cause and effect seem not quite to apply in otherwise real world situations. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Government Constitutional monarchy  -  Monarch Queen Elizabeth II... Bollywood (Hindi: , Urdu: ) is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India. ... A Hindu ( , Devanagari: हिन्दु), as per modern definition, is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, and the religious, philosophical and cultural system that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

At the beginning of the novel, both are trapped in a hijacked plane during a flight from India to Britain. The plane explodes over the English Channel, but the two are magically saved. In a miraculous transformation, Farishta takes on the personality of the archangel Gibreel, and Chamcha that of a devil. Farishta's transformation can be read on a realistic level as the symptom of the protagonist's developing schizophrenia. Satellite view of the English Channel The English Channel (French: , the sleeve) is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. ... 12th-century icon of Archangel Gabriel from Novgorod. ...

Both characters struggle to piece their broken lives back together. Farishta seeks and finds his lost love, the English mountaineer Allie Cone, but their relationship is overshadowed by his mental illness. Chamcha, having miraculously regained his human shape, wants to take revenge on Farishta for having forsaken him after their common fall from the hijacked plane. He does so by fostering Farishta's pathological jealousy and thus destroying his relationship with Allie. In another moment of crisis, Farishta realizes what Chamcha has done, but forgives him and even saves his life.

Both later return to India. Farishta, still suffering from his illness, kills Allie in another outbreak of jealousy and then commits suicide. Chamcha, who has found not only forgiveness from Farishta but also reconciliation with his estranged father and his own Indian identity, decides to remain in India.

Embedded in this story is a series of half-magic dream vision narratives, ascribed to the disturbed mind of Gibreel Farishta. They are linked together by many thematic details as well as by the common motifs of divine revelation, religious faith and fanaticism, and doubt.

One of these sequences contains most of the elements that have been criticized as offensive to Muslims. It is a transformed re-narration of the life of the prophet Muhammad (called "Mahound" or "the Messenger" in the novel) in Mecca ("Jahilia"). At its centre is the episode of the Satanic Verses, in which the prophet first proclaims a revelation in favour of the old polytheistic deities, but later renounces this as an error induced by Shaitan. There are also two opponents of the "Messenger": a demonic heathen priestess, Hind, and an irreverent skeptic and satirical poet, Baal. When the prophet returns to the city in triumph, Baal goes into hiding in an underground brothel where the prostitutes assume the identities of the prophet's wives. Also, one of the prophet's companions claims that he, doubting the "Messenger"'s authenticity, has subtly altered portions of the Qur'an as they were dictated to him. Muhammad in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Jahiliyyah or jahalia (Arabic: جاهلية) is an Islamic concept of ignorance of divine guidance or the state of ignorance of the guidance from God[1] referring to the condition Arabs found themselves in pre-Islamic Arabian society prior to the revelation of the Quran. ... For the novel by Salman Rushdie, see The Satanic Verses. ... At its simplest, Shayṭān is the Arabic word for “Satan”. In Islam, Shayṭān (Arabic: شيطان) is an entity analogous to Satan in Christianity. ... Hind bint Utbah (هند بنت عتبة) was an Arabic woman who lived in the late 6th and early 7th centuries CE; she was the wife of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, a powerful man of Mecca, in western Arabia. ... The Qur’ān [1] (Arabic: ;, literally the recitation; also sometimes transliterated as Quran, Koran, or Alcoran) is the central religious text of Islam. ...

The second sequence tells the story of Ayesha, an Indian peasant girl who claims to be receiving revelations from the Archangel Gibreel. She entices all her village community to embark on a foot pilgrimage to Mecca, claiming that they will be able to walk on foot across the Arabian Sea. The pilgrimage ends in a catastrophic climax as the believers all walk into the water and disappear, amid disturbingly conflicting testimonies from observers about whether they just drowned or were in fact miraculously able to cross the sea. The Arabian Sea (Arabic: بحر العرب; transliterated: Bahr al-Arab) is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui, the north-east point of Somalia...

A third dream sequence presents the figure of a fanatic expatriate religious leader, the "Imam", set again in a late-20th-century setting. This figure is a transparent allusion to the life of Ayatollah Khomeini in his Parisian exile, but it is also linked through various recurrent narrative motifs to the figure of the "Messenger". Ayatollah Khomeini founded the first modern Islamic republic Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini (آیت‌الله روح‌الله خمینی in Persian) (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was an Iranian Shia cleric and the political...

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The Satanic Verses

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Literary criticism and analysis

Overall, the book received favourable reviews from literature critics.

Timothy Brennan called the work "the most ambitious novel yet published to deal with the immigrant experience in Britain" that captures the immigrants dream-like disorientation and their process of "union-by-hybridization". The book is seen as "fundamentally a study in alienation."^[4]

Muhammd Mashuq ibn Ally wrote that "The Satanic Verses is about identity, alienation, rootlessness, brutality, compromise, and conformity. These concepts confront all migrants, disillusioned with both cultures: the one they are in and the one they join. Yet knowing they cannot live a life of anonymity, they mediate between them both. The Satanic Verses is a reflection of the author’s dilemmas." The work is an "albeit surreal, record of its own author's continuing identity crisis."^[4] Ally said that the book reveals the author ultimately as a victim, "the victim of nineteenth-century British colonialism."^[4] Rushdie himself spoke confirming this interpretation of his book saying that it was not about the Islamic faith "but about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay."^[4] He has also said "It’s a novel which happened to contain a castigation of Western materialism. The tone is comic."^[4]

After The Satanic Verses controversy developed some scholars familiar with the book and the whole of Rushdie's work like M. D. Fletcher saw the reaction as ironic. Fletcher wrote "It is perhaps a relevant irony that some of the major expressions of hostility toward Rushdie came from those about whom and (in some sense) for whom he wrote."^[5] He said the manifestations of the controversy in Britain "embodied an anger arising in part form the frustrations of the migrant experience and generally reflected failures of multicultural integration, both significant Rushdie themes. Clearly, Rushdie's interests centrally include explorations of how migration heightens one's awareness that perceptions of reality are relative and fragile, and of the nature of religious faith and revelation, not to mention the political manipulation of religion. Rushdie's own assumptions about the importance of literature, which parallel in some sense the literal value accorded the written word in Islamic tradition. But Rushdie seems to have assumed that diverse communities and cultures share some degree of common moral ground on the basis of which dialogue can be pieced together, and it is perhaps for this reason that he underestimated the implacable nature of the hostility evoked by The Satanic Verses, even though a major theme of that novel is the dangerous nature of closed, absolutist belief systems."^[5] The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition The Satanic Verses Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses. ...

Rushdie's influences have long been a point of interest to scholars examining his work and for The Satanic Verses Chandrabhanu Pattanayak noted the influence of William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (influences Rushdie admitted to).^[5] M. Keith Booker likened the book to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.^[5] Al-'Azm noted the influence of François Rabelais' works on Rushdie and on The Satanic Verses in particular.^[5] Others have noted an influence of Indian classics such as the Mahabharata and the Arabian Nights.^[5] William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827) was an English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker. ... The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of William Blakes books, a series of texts written in imitation of biblical books of prophecy, but expressing Blakes own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. ... Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Афанасьевич Булгаков; May 15 [O.S. May 3] 1891, Kiev – March 10, 1940, Moscow) was a Russian novelist and playwright of the first half of the 20th century. ... The Master and Margarita (Russian: ) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven about the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. ... James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Séamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... For the street ballad which the novel is named after, see Finnegans Wake. ... François Rabelais François Rabelais (c. ... For the film by Peter Brook, see The Mahabharata (1989 film). ... Queen Scheherazade tells her stories to King Shahryar. ...

Srinivas Aravamudan’s analysis of The Satanic Verses was perceived by other scholars as hailing the book as a proof "demonstrating the compatibility of postmodernism and post-colonialism in the one novel."^[5] Aravamudan himself stressed the satiric nature of the work and held that while it and Midnight's Children may appear to be more "comic epic", "clearly those works are highly satirical" in a similar vein of postmodern satire pioneered by Joseph Heller in Catch-22.^[5] The term Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated Pomo[1]) was coined in 1949 to describe a dissatisfaction with modern architecture, founding the postmodern architecture. ... Post-colonialism refers to the intellectual field opened up by Edward Saids book Orientalism. ... Midnights Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie. ... Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American satirical novelist and playwright. ... Catch 22 can refer to: A book by Joseph Heller, or the movie based on the book; see Catch-22. ...

The Satanic Verses continued to exhibit Rushdie's penchant for organizing his work in terms of parallel stories. Within the book "there are major parallel stories, alternating dream and reality sequences, tied together by the recurring names of the characters in each; this provides intertexts within each novel which comment on the other stories."^[5] The Satanic Verses also exhibits Rushdie's common practice of using allusions in order to invoke connotative links. Within the book he referenced everything from mythology to "one-liners invoking recent popular culture" sometimes using several per page.^[5] Chapter VII was especially noted by scholars for such usage.^[5]

The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition The Satanic Verses Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdies novel The Satanic Verses. ...

See also

• Censorship in South Asia
• Censorship by organized religion
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of speech versus blasphemy

Censorship in South Asia can apply to books, movies the Internet and other media. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Freedom of speech is the concept of being able to speak freely without censorship. ... Freedom of speech versus blasphemy represents the tension which exists between political freedom, particularly freedom of speech, and certain examples of art, literature, speech or other acts which some consider to be sacrilegious or blasphemous. ...

References

Notes

Publications

• 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature', Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald & Dawn B. Sova, Checkmark Books, New York, 1999. ISBN 0-8160-4059-1

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... January 22 is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

• Daniel Pipes: The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West (1990), Transaction Publishers, (2003), with a postscript by Koenraad Elst. ISBN 0-7658-0996-6
• Elst, Koenraad: The Rushdie Rules Middle East Quarterly, June 1998

The Middle East Quarterly is a quarterly journal devoted to Middle Eastern affairs. ...

External links

• ISBN 0-312-27082-8
• Notes on Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses
• The Rusdhie's Affair Legacy by Koenraad Elst
• Satanic Verses and Last Temptations - discusses criticism of The Satanic Verses as well as of the film The Last Temptation of Christ
• Swords to sell a god by Ram Swarup
• Healthy Blasphemy: Dissenting Discourses in Rushdie and Bulgakov - discusses the role of the artist in Rushdie's and Bulgakov's works

Koenraad Elst is a Belgian orientalist, writer and researcher[1]. He has authored fifteen books on topics related to Hinduism, Indian history, and Indian politics. ... Ram Swarup (राम स्‍वरूप) (1920 - December 26, 1998) was an influential ideologue for the Hindutvamovement. ...