Rushdie, Sir Salman

Rushdie, Sir (Ahmed) Salman

(born June 19, 1947, Bombay, India) Anglo-Indian novelist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he worked as an advertising copywriter in London in the 1970s before winning unexpected success with Midnight's Children (1981, Booker Prize), an allegorical novel about modern India. His second novel, Shame (1983), is a scathing portrait of politics and sexual morality in Pakistan. The Satanic Verses (1988), which includes episodes based on the life of Muhammad, was denounced as blasphemous by outraged Muslim leaders, and in 1989 Iran's Ruhollah Khomeini condemned Rushdie to death. Rushdie became the focus of enormous international attention and was compelled to remain in hiding until 1998, when Iran said it would no longer enforce Khomeini's decree. Rushdie's other novels include The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), Fury (2001), and Shalimar the Clown (2005). He was knighted in 2007.