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 what are known as the satanic verses. According to early Muslim biographies of Muhammad, Muhammad was tricked into revealing these verses as part of the Qur''an by Satan and he later retracted them, saying the angel Jibreel had told him to do so. The verses allow for prayers of intercession to be made to three Pagan Meccan goddesses: Allat, Uzza, and Manah.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.
In the United Kingdom, the book was well received among critics. 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.
In the Muslim community, however, the novel caused great
controversy for what many Muslims believed were 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 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.
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