The Satanic Verses Study Guide

Salman Rushdie was born into a liberal Muslim family in Bombay (present-day Mumbai). He received his education in England at Rugby School and later at King’s College, Cambridge. In England, he developed a deep love for English literature while also facing a fair degree of racial prejudice. After graduating, Rushdie worked as an advertising copywriter in London while pursuing his passion for writing. His first novel, Grimus (1975), garnered little attention, but his second, Midnight’s Children (1981), won the Booker Prize and established him as a leading voice in postcolonial literature. In 1988, Rushdie published The Satanic Verses, a novel that ignited a global controversy due to its portrayal of Islam. The book, perceived as blasphemous by some in the Muslim world, sparked widespread protests. In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing him into hiding under police protection for several years. Despite the threats, Rushdie continued writing, producing works such as The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) and Shalimar the Clown (2005). Over time, the political climate shifted, and in 1998, the Iranian government distanced itself from the fatwa. However, on August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was attacked and stabbed multiple times, resulting in the loss of an eye and nearly the loss of his life as the result of the fatwa. Ultimately, Rushdie recovered and continued writing. His most recent work, Knife (2024), is a work of nonfiction in which he discusses the stabbing and the events that led to it.

British colonialism plays a crucial role in the novel’s thematic landscape. At its height, the British Empire controlled vast territories across Asia, Africa, and the Americas, including India, where Rushdie was born. The effects of colonial rule on the colonized peoples, particularly the cultural and religious impositions, are central to the novel. The story reflects the struggles of postcolonial societies as they grapple with their identities in the aftermath of colonial domination. The immigrant experience in Britain, depicted through characters like Saladin Chamcha, illustrates the ongoing tensions between former colonizers and the colonized. These characters navigate the complexities of identity and cultural assimilation in a postcolonial world, echoing the broader historical context of decolonization and the waves of migration that followed the collapse of the British Empire. Another pivotal historical event directly related to The Satanic Verses is the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, on February 14, 1989. This religious edict accused Rushdie of blasphemy against Islam due to the novel’s content and called for his death. The fatwa had immediate consequences, leading to violent protests, book burnings, and several assassination attempts on those associated with the book’s publication. The international reaction to the fatwa highlighted the cultural and political divides between the West and the Islamic world. The incident became a symbol of the broader conflict over freedom of expression, religious sensitivity, and the rights of artists and writers to challenge religious dogma.

The Satanic Verses is deeply rooted in literary and religious traditions, drawing comparisons to a range of significant texts. At the heart of the novel is its controversial engagement with the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. Rushdie’s novel takes inspiration from the story of the so-called “satanic verses,” a disputed episode in Islamic tradition where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have momentarily accepted verses that acknowledged pagan goddesses before retracting them, declaring them to have been inspired by Satan. This narrative, though not found in the Qur’an itself, appears in some early Islamic sources and has been a point of contention among scholars and believers. Rushdie’s fictional exploration of this theme, coupled with his portrayal of a prophet-like character, led to accusations of blasphemy and fueled the intense backlash against the novel. Additionally, The Satanic Verses stands alongside other works of postcolonial literature that grapple with issues of identity, migration, and cultural hybridity. Salman Rushdie’s own Midnight’s Children (1981) explores the legacy of British colonialism in India through a blend of historical fiction and magical realism, a style that also permeates The Satanic Verses. The novel’s exploration of the immigrant experience in the West connects it to works such as V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, both of which delve into the complexities of cultural assimilation.