'' 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 , an attempted Interpolation in the Qur'an described by Ibn Ishaq in his biography of Muhammad (the oldest surviving text). Many Muslims find Ibn Ishaq's story deeply disturbing and reject it as Myth , while many Muslim scholars also reject the story as historically improbable and weakly attested.
The novel caused much controversy upon publication in 1988, as many Muslims considered that it contained , the Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death in July 1991, Ettore Capriolo , the Italian 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 1991. On February 14, 2006, the Iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently. {Link without Title}
In the UK, however, the book garnered great critical acclaim. It was a 1988 Booker Prize Finalist, eventually losing to Peter Carey 's '' Oscar And Lucinda ''.
The novel, like many other books by Rushdie, involves Indian expatriates in England . The two protagonists, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, are returning from a visit to India when their aircraft explodes over the English Channel . However, they miraculously survive the fall after the explosion and feel as if they have been Reborn . Gibreel Farishta gains an angelic halo while Saladin Chamcha finds horns growing on his head. The novel is best described as Magical Realism .
- September 26, 1988 - book is published in the U.K.
- October 5, 1988 - importation of the book into India is banned
- November 21, 1988 - the grand sheik of Egypt's Al-Azhar calls on Islamic organizations in Britain to take legal action to prevent the novel's distribution
- November 24, 1988 banned in South Africa
- December 1988 and January 1989 British Muslims hold book burnings in Bolton and Bradford. The Islamic Defence Council demands that Penguin Books apologize, withdraw the book, pulp any extant copies, and never reprint it.
- February 12, 1989: six people are killed and 100 injured during protests in Islamabad, Pakistan
- February 13, 1989 one person is killed and 60 injured in riots in Srinigar, India
- February 14, 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling on all Muslims to execute all those involved in the publication of the book. The 15 Khordad Foundation, an Iranian charity, offers a monetary reward for the murder of Rushdie.
- February 16, 1989 Rushdie enters the protection program of the British government, and issues a statement regretting the offense his book had caused. Khomeini responds by reiterating that "it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has, his life and his wealth, to send {Link without Title} to hell."
- February 22, 1989 The book is published in the United States. Two major bookstore chains, under threat, remove the book from a third of the nation's bookstores.
- February 28, 1989 Two bookstores in Berkeley, California are firebombed.
- February 24, 1989 12 die in rioting at Bombay
- March 7, 1989 Britain breaks diplomatic relations with Iran
- March, 1989 The Organization of the Islamic Conference calls on its 46 member governments to prohibit the book. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar sets the punishment for possession of the book as three years in prison and a fine of $2,500. In Malaysia, the penalty is three years in prison and a fine of $7,400. In Indonesia, a month in prison or a fine. The only nation with a predominantly Muslim population where the book remains legal is Turkey. Several nations with large Muslim minorities, including Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, and Sierra Leone also impose penalties for possessing the book.
- 1990: five bombings target bookstores in England
- July 1991 Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator is stabbed to death; the Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, is seriously wounded.
- October 1993, the Norwegian publisher, Wiliam Nygaard, is shot and seriously injured.
- 1993 The 15 Khordad Foundation in Iran raised the reward for Rushdie's murder to $300,000.
- February 14 2006, Iran’s official state news agency reported on the anniversary of the decree that the government-run Martyrs Foundation had announced, "The fatwa by Imam Khomeini in regards to the apostate Salman Rushdie will be in effect forever", and that one of Iran’s state ''bonyad'', or foundations, had offered a $2.8 million bounty on his life. {Link without Title}
- ''100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature''', Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald & Dawn B. Sova, Checkmark Books, New York, 1999. ISBN 0816040591
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