“The Satanic Verses”, which led to Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa condemning Salman Rushdie to death, is a work of fiction. However, the incident evoked in this novel and from which its title is inspired, refers to a proven historical fact, mentioned both in the Koran and in the main books of the Sira, the chronicles of the life and words of the Prophet of Islam.
In his novel, Salman Rushdie devotes to the incident of the ‘‘satanic verses’’ – an indisputable historical fact that the Koran evokes, without detour or ambiguity (Verse 52, Sura 22) – the second chapter of the novel entitled Mahound.
