Salman Rushdie is an internationally acclaimed novelist, essayist, and public intellectual. He is best known for his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, which was published in 1988 and sparked a global uproar. The novel was seen as blasphemous by many Muslims, and Rushdie was forced into hiding for nearly a decade due to a fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran.

Rushdie was born in Bombay, India in 1947. He attended the Cathedral and John Connon School in Bombay, and later studied history at King’s College, Cambridge. After graduating, he worked as a copywriter and advertising executive in London. In 1981, he published his first novel, Grimus, which was not a success.

In 1988, Rushdie published The Satanic Verses, which was an immediate success. The novel was seen as blasphemous by many Muslims, and the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death. Rushdie was forced into hiding for nearly a decade, and the British government provided him with round-the-clock protection.

In 1998, the Iranian government declared that it would no longer support the fatwa, and Rushdie was able to emerge from hiding. He has since published several more novels, including The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), The Ground Beneath Her Feet (1999), Fury (2001), Shalimar the Clown (2005), and The Enchantress of Florence (2008). He has also written several non-fiction works, including Imaginary Homelands (1991) and Step Across This Line (2002).

In addition to his writing, Rushdie has been an outspoken advocate for freedom of expression and human rights. He has served as a visiting professor at several universities, including Emory University, the University of Michigan, and New York University. He has also been awarded numerous honors, including the Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children (1981), the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel for The Satanic Verses (1988), and the Best of the Booker Prize for Midnight’s Children (2008).

Today, Rushdie continues to write and speak out on issues of freedom of expression and human rights. He is a vocal critic of censorship and religious extremism, and has been a strong advocate for the rights of writers and journalists around the world. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Freedom of Expression Institute. Rushdie’s work has been translated into more than 40 languages, and he remains one of the most influential and respected writers of our time.