Salman Rushdie
19 June 1947 – present
Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British and American novelist whose second novel, Midnight's Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981. The publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988 led Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his death, forcing him into years of hiding; he was seriously injured in a knife attack in New York State in 2022.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Salman Rushdie.
- Ada Yonath (1939–2026) Overlapped 79 years →
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 79 years →
- Alex Ferguson (1941–present) Overlapped 79 years →
- Ali Khamenei (1939–2026) Overlapped 79 years →
- Arvo Pärt (1935–present) Overlapped 79 years →
- Asha Bhosle (1933–2026) Overlapped 79 years →
Life events
Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born into a Kashmiri Muslim family two months before Indian independence.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAt thirteen he was sent from Bombay to board at Rugby School in Warwickshire.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe science-fiction novel was published while Rushdie was working as an advertising copywriter in London.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe novel, tracing India's history through a child born at the moment of independence, later also won the Booker of Bookers in 1993 and the Best of the Booker in 2008.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe novel provoked protests in several countries and was banned in India and elsewhere.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgFollowing the fatwa, Rushdie lived under British police protection and in hiding for around a decade.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRushdie relocated from London to the United States and later became a US citizen.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRushdie was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRushdie was attacked before a lecture and lost the sight of his right eye; he described the attack in his 2024 memoir Knife.
Source: en.wikipedia.org