Facts about Salman Rushdie
- 08
Born in Bombay in 1947, Salman Rushdie was educated at Rugby School in England before attending King's College, Cambridge, where he studied history.
- 07
During a 1981 interview, Salman Rushdie claimed he had read over 3,000 books by age twenty-five, attributing his literary knowledge to voracious childhood reading habits in India and Pakistan.
- 06
Rushdie spent nine years in hiding under police protection in Britain after the 1989 fatwa, moving between safe houses to evade assassination attempts.
- 05
Rushdie's 1981 debut novel Grimus sold fewer than 500 copies in its first printing, making his later Booker Prize success with Midnight's Children a dramatic reversal of fortune.
- 04
Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses was translated into 47 languages, sparking controversy in multiple Muslim-majority countries before the fatwa.
- 03
After stabbing left Salman Rushdie blind in one eye and unable to use one hand, the 2022 attack occurred when he was preparing to give a lecture in western New York.
- 02
In 1981, Salman Rushdie won the Booker Prize for his novel Midnight's Children, which tells the story of 1,001 children born at the exact moment of India's independence.
- 01
The fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini in February 1989 offered a monetary bounty that was later increased to approximately 3 million dollars.