The Satanic Verses: Background information when reading Shalimar The Clown

The Satanic Verses

This article relates to Shalimar The Clown

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The 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie proclaimed by Ayatollah Khomeini (then leader of Iran) triggered by the publication of The Satantic Verses in 1988/ It was reaffirmed in 2005 by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's current spiritual leader, and again in February 2006 when the government-run Matyrs Foundation announced, "The fatwa by Imam Khomeini in regards to the apostate Salman Rushdie will be in effect forever ..... The book The Satanic Verses was the incarnation of the satanic plots of the World Arrogance (United States) and the occupying Zionists which appeared through the sleeves of this apostate".  Another of Iran's foundations has offered a USA $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie’s life.

In 1998, Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami proclaimed the fatwa "finished"; but it has never been officially lifted, and in fact has been reiterated several times by Ali Khamenei and other religious officials. Yet more money was added to the bounty in February 2016.

The key element that Khomeini found offensive in The Satanic Verses was a fictionalized illusion to a legend relating to the Prophet Mohammed, in which it is said that Mohammed originally accepted some verses into the Qur'an that acknowledged three goddesses popular in Mecca at the time (thus fundamentally changing his monotheistic message).  The people of Mecca were happy to hear this and ceased their persecution of Mohammed and his followers, but later Mohammed removed the verses, having been visited by the Angel Jabril who revealed to him that the verses were a deception planted by the devil, and therefore not the authentic word of Allah. 

It is not clear whether these verses existed or are simply fable. Some of the early histories of Mohammed make reference to the verses and some people interpret certain passages of both the Hadith* and the Qur'an as referring to the so called "satanic verses" (a name coined by the 19th century British historian William Muir).  However, it appears that most modern-day scholars think the story is historically improbable.  For more on this see the very interesting article in Wikipedia.

*The Hadith is a collection of the sayings and actions of Muhammad and his companions which, like the Qur'an, was passed down as an oral tradition for some years after Mohammed's death before being formally written down during the time of Caliph Uthman, who formed the committee that compiled the basic text of the Qur'an as it exists today.

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This "beyond the book article" relates to Shalimar The Clown. It originally ran in October 2005 and has been updated for the October 2006 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

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