Salman Rushdie: Biography, Attack, Fatwa, and Books

For four decades, Salman Rushdie has lived with a price on his head — first from a fatwa that upended his life, then from a knife attack that nearly ended it. Yet in his memoir Knife, published in 2023, he described waking after the stabbing and making a deliberate choice: to write about it.

Born: 19 June 1947, Bombay, India ·
Notable Work: Midnight’s Children (1981) ·
Fatwa Issued: 14 February 1989 ·
2022 Attack: 12 August 2022 ·
Booker Prize: 1981 (Best of the Booker 2008)

A man who spent a decade in hiding for a novel chose to stand on a public stage and almost paid for it with his life.

What happened to Salman Rushdie and why?

The 2022 stabbing attack

• At about 10:47 a.m. on August 12, 2022, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times onstage at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, just before he was about to deliver a public lecture, as Associated Press reported.
• The attacker, identified as Hadi Matar, 24, was restrained by audience members and police, per Al Jazeera.
• Rushdie was flown by helicopter to a local hospital, according to a timeline by ABC News Australia.

Why was he targeted?

• Prosecutors later said Matar told investigators he acted in support of the fatwa against Rushdie, believing it was endorsed by Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah, per the Associated Press.
• Notably, just five days before the attack — on August 7, 2022 — a state-controlled website in Tehran republished the fatwa, as documented by the Wilson Center.

Aftermath and recovery

• Rushdie lost sight in one eye and suffered severe injuries but survived, confirmed by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• The District Attorney sought the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the assault on Rushdie, plus an additional seven years for injuring another person present on stage, per Associated Press.

The implication: The attack was not random — it was the delayed fuse of a 33-year-old death decree that Iran’s theocracy never formally revoked, and that Matar claimed to be enforcing.

What is Salman Rushdie most known for?

Major novels and literary style

• Rushdie is known for magical realism — blending historical fiction with fantasy — as described by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• His debut novel Grimus (1975) received modest attention, but his breakthrough came with Midnight’s Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize and later the Best of the Booker in 2008, per Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Other major works include Shame, The Satanic Verses, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Booker Prize and critical acclaim

• Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children won the Booker Prize in 1981, and in 2008 it was awarded the Best of the Booker — a public vote for the best novel to have won the prize in its 40-year history, as noted by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• He also won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and has been a finalist for the Man Booker Prize multiple times.

The Satanic Verses and the fatwa

• The publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988 sparked worldwide protests among Muslims who deemed it blasphemous for its fictionalized portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad, per Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• In February 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa — a religious edict — calling for Rushdie’s assassination, as documented by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Rushdie has consistently stated that the novel is a work of fiction and not a historical account.

How long was Salman Rushdie in hiding?

Years under police protection

• Rushdie went into hiding after the fatwa was issued on February 14, 1989, spending nearly a decade under British police protection, as reported by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• During this period, he moved frequently between safehouses and was assigned round-the-clock security details.

Life in the UK and frequent moves

• He continued writing throughout the hiding period, publishing several novels including Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) and The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995).
• The British government spent an estimated £1.5 million per year on his protection, according to press reports from the period.

End of the formal hiding period

• In 1998, the Iranian government under President Mohammad Khatami sought to distance itself from the fatwa, pledging not to urge its enforcement, as noted by Wikipedia.
• However, in 2017, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reaffirmed that the decree remained in effect, per Wikipedia.
• Rushdie emerged from hiding in the late 1990s but remained cautious; he moved to the United States in the 2000s and continued to travel with security.

Why this matters: Even after the fatwa was “lifted” by Tehran’s reformist government, it was never formally rescinded. The 2017 reaffirmation by Khamenei meant that for any true believer, the death sentence remained standing — a fact that made the 2022 attack a near-inevitability rather than a surprise.

What did Salman Rushdie say about Muhammad?

Portrayal in The Satanic Verses

• In The Satanic Verses, Rushdie includes a fictionalized version of the Prophet Muhammad in a dream sequence, in which the character — named Mahound — receives and then recants verses that allow worship of three pre-Islamic goddesses, as detailed by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Many Muslims considered this portrayal blasphemous, viewing it as an attack on the foundational belief that the Quran is the literal word of God, not subject to human editing.

Rushdie’s defense of free speech

• Rushdie has consistently argued that the novel is a work of fiction exploring themes of migration, identity, and faith — not a historical account. He famously stated: “Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game.”
• In his 1990 essay “In Good Faith,” he wrote: “The Satanic Verses is not, as many have claimed, an anti-religious novel. It is, rather, an attempt to write about migration, its pains, and its transformations.”

Reactions from the Islamic world

• The controversy led to book burnings in the UK and across the Muslim world, bans in India, South Africa, and many other countries, and ultimately the fatwa.
• Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) initially said Rushdie “should be killed” but later retracted the statement, calling it “a statement that I wasn’t proud of.”

The pattern: The gap between what Rushdie intended — a novelist’s exercise in magical realism — and what was read — a deliberate blasphemy — was unbridgeable. For his defenders, the episode became a test of free speech. For his critics, it was a test of religious respect. Neither side conceded.

Why did Padma leave Salman Rushdie?

Marriage and divorce timeline

• Rushdie married model and television host Padma Lakshmi in 2004; they divorced in 2007 after three years of marriage, as reported by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Lakshmi was 27 at the time of the marriage; Rushdie was 56 — a 29-year age difference that attracted media attention.

Padma Lakshmi’s statements

• Lakshmi has said in interviews that they had “different expectations about family life” — she wanted children and a more traditional family structure, while Rushdie, already a father from his first marriage, was less inclined, according to her memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate.
• She also cited irreconcilable differences and the difficulty of living in Rushdie’s security bubble as contributing factors.

Post-divorce relationships

• Rushdie later married poet and photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths in 2016. She is 15 years younger than Rushdie and was not previously a public figure before their relationship.
• Lakshmi married investment banker Adam Dell in 2009 (divorced 2014) and has since focused on her culinary career and advocacy work.

The trade-off: Rushdie’s fame and security demands — the very conditions that made him a global figure — also made ordinary domestic life difficult. For Lakshmi, the marriage meant living inside a security perimeter; she chose to step out.

Timeline

• 1947: Born in Bombay, India
• 1968: Moved to the UK to study at Cambridge
• 1981: Midnight’s Children wins Booker Prize
• 1988: The Satanic Verses published
• 14 Feb 1989: Ayatollah Khomeini issues fatwa; Rushdie goes into hiding
• 1998: Iranian government distances itself from fatwa; Rushdie emerges from hiding
• 2004: Marries Padma Lakshmi
• 2007: Divorces Padma Lakshmi
• 2016: Marries Rachel Eliza Griffiths
• 12 Aug 2022: Stabbed at Chautauqua Institution; survives
• 2023: Publishes memoir Knife about the attack

Confirmed facts and what remains unclear

Confirmed facts

• Rushdie survived the 2022 stabbing (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• The fatwa was issued in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• He won the Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• He married four times (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• He lost sight in his right eye in the attack (Associated Press)

What remains unclear

• Exact motives of the attacker Hadi Matar beyond general support for the fatwa (Associated Press)
• Whether the fatwa is still actively enforced by Iran (Wikipedia)
• Precise net worth (estimates vary)
• Details of his relationship with his first wife

Quotes from key figures

“Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game.”

— Salman Rushdie, in defense of free speech after the fatwa

“I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses book… is sentenced to death.”

— Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, announcing the fatwa, February 14, 1989

“He should be killed.” (Later retracted and apologized)

— Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), comment on Rushdie after the fatwa

“We had different expectations about family life.”

— Padma Lakshmi, on the divorce

For the publishing industry and free speech advocates, the lesson is stark: a fatwa from 1989, never formally rescinded, nearly killed Rushdie in 2022. The cost of silence — the refusal by Iran’s leadership to unequivocally lift the decree — was measured in blood on a stage in upstate New York. For writers who tackle religion, politics, or identity, the choice is clear: accept the risk of backlash, or censor yourself before anyone else does.