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Masthead Logo The Iowa Review Volume 20 Article 39 Issue 1 Winter
1990 Salman Rushdie's Satanic Narration Marlena G. Corcoran
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Recommended Citation Corcoran, Marlena G.. "Salman Rushdie's Satanic Narration." The Iowa Review 20.1 (1990): 155-167. Web. Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0021-065X.3860
This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in The oI wa Review by an authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Forum on The Satanic Verses*
Salman Rushdie's Satanic Narration
Marlena G. Corcoran
were over A year ago in Pakistan, six people killed in riots The Satanic an Verses, allegedly blasphemous book. Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on the faithful to execute the author, Salman Rusdie, promising that any Muslim who lost his lifewhile tryingwould go straight to heaven; and a reward worth 5.4 million dollars provided additional incentive. own none By their admission, virtually of the Muslim protestors had read The Satanic Verses. The book is banned in both India, where Rushdie now as as was born, and Pakistan, where his family lives, well in Iran, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Egypt. The Sunni Muslim theologians of on Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, who issued the ban, based their decision a reading of only selected excerpts of the novel. Iran alone among the Is lamic countries called for the death of the author. Iran is a fundamentalist are Shi'ite theocracy, whereas the majority of Egyptians Sunni Muslims. not Al Azhar banned the book, but stopped there. Salman Rushdie is the to only noted author be banned by the Great Mosque in Cairo. In 1959 Al a Azhar prevented the Egyptian publication in book form of novel by won Naguib Mahfouz. Mahfouz, who the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, concurred with the decision. At the time of its banning, few Westerners had read the novel, either. was 22 Its official American publication date February 1989. Although ad vance copies had been available for several weeks before that, the death sentence issued by Khomeini against Rushdie and his publishers in Febru to ary, coupled with bomb threats bookstores, ledWaldenbooks, B. Dal to remove ton, and Barnes and Noble temporarily the book from their shelves. A year later, the book is easy to procure, at least in the United States, but many people hardly get past the title, which polarizes the On one are book's potential audience. hand, non-Muslim readers unlikely
* are The four essays presented here extensions and revisions of talks given at The University of Iowa, March 10, 1989. A year later, as we go to press, the threats against Rushdie have only been renewed.
155
University of Iowa is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Iowa Review ® www.jstor.org to means. are some know what the title They therefore in the position of one an who picks up English Romantic poem championing Satan without having read any earlier versions of the Fall. On the other hand, Muslims the title may recognize and find themselves systematically insulted through out the novel. to a The willingness of devout Muslims condemn book of which they to one have read only the title is easier understand if realizes that the novel a are is itself named after banned text. The original "Satanic verses" those that Muhammad censored from the Qur'an, because he believed them to verses be inspired by the devil. The in question consider the relation be name means to tween Allah, whose "the God," three ancient Arab god name means to desses, including Al-Lat, whose "the goddess," according the article on Al-Lat in the first edition of The Islam Encyclopaedie of one new (1936). This article isworth comparing with the in the edition of con this encyclopedia, which claims that the etymology of "Al-Lat" is one tested, and that she may be related to Astarte. At point in his revela were tions, Muhammad recited that these three goddesses intercessors was with Allah; but that position quickly superceded. The orthodox view names is now contained in Sura 53 of the Qur'an, which the goddesses, are assures dismisses them because they female, and the faithful that "They are but names which you and your fathers have invented; Allah has vested no authority in them." This historical act of revision is reenacted within the novel in a dream a name sequence chapter, called "Mahound," derogatory for Muhammad. to a Muslims have objected Rushdie's fictional portrayal there of character more a resembling the Prophet. A subtle critique, still from point of view a narrator informed by Islam, is that the chapter has suspicious who may case be, as in the of the original troubling verses, Satan himself. Rushdie's Mahound doubts that the verses he has received concerning the exalted are so re role of the three goddesses, including Al-Lat, legitimate, and he to turns the angel. Gibreel, who is both the angel in this episode, and the to human actor who is dreaming the episode, protests the reader in italics, accents: comes tome me to with Anglo-Indian "Mahound for revelation, asking some choose between monotheist and henotheist alternatives, and I'm just idiot actor a I to having bhaenchud nightmare, what thefuck do know, yaar, what tell you, help.Help" (109). answer. Mahound wrestles with the angel, and manipulates the In the
156 next as on a section, Gibreel reflects this, first-person voice breaks through in was me me italics, saying, "it both times, baba, first and second also me." The we paragraph ends, "and all know how my mouth got worked" (123). The to to speaker claims have given both revelations, have spoken both for and sure or against the goddesses. We cannot be whether Gibreel Satan is say or ing this; but the voice claims that either itwas Gibreel both times, both times it was Satan. So, no matter whether it was Gibreel or Satan, the was a angel manipulated by Mahound; the will of questionable prophet determined the revelation.
The seriousness of Rushdie's revisions regarding inspiration and author ity must be measured against the Muslim belief that every single word of the Qur'an came not from Muhammad, but from God himself. Moreover, as were on the original text is it file with God. Most Muslim authorities think the word "Qur'an" means "what he read" or "what he recited." This is the governing narrative that Rushdie is working both with and can as so against. The myriad metamorphoses in the novel be understood to many attempts engage, question, and celebrate the creation of textual versions of what may be read, or recited, or revealed. concern This overarching is introduced in the opening scene, in which two hijacked Indian passengers, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, an are one fall from exploding plane and land in England. Both actors; specializes in imitating voices and the other in the Indian film genre of "theologicals." While falling, they metamorphose into versions of the verses at one archangels, Gibreel (Gabriel) and Shaitan (Satan). They shout a another in contest and tumble past the specter of woman who is singing "verses" in which Gibreel "thought he made out, but maybe not, the name o? Al-Lat" (8). into a As they "fall" together, this pair of opposites melds troublesome to double-unit. A disembodied will-to-live overtakes Saladin and spreads a to Gibreel. In command much like the archangel gave Muhammad to to "Recite," the will-to-live commands Gibreel "Sing." It is Gibreel's narrator song that lands them safely. A who claims, "I know the truth, on obviously," comments this cbiin of inspiration, and questions its type:
"Chamcha willed it and Farishta did what was willed. Which one was the miracle-worker? ? Of what type ?angelic, satanic was Farishta's song? Who am I?" (10)
157 " am same By asking "Who I? this narrator poses for the novel the ques tion Muhammad asked of the dubious "Satanic verses": who is their nar rator?
Rushdie's writing gains in importance by making this connection be a tween sacred tradition regarding textual transmission and contemporary or At a we metafiction, writing-about-writing. time when have all but us a ver lost our faith in definitive origins, Rushdie writes into world of sions that is nevertheless not a trivial world, but aworld suffused with the con sacred. In its questioning of both the transmission of sacred text, and temporary representations of writing, The Satanic Verses may well be the first postmodern Islamic novel. Rushdie's textual critique of Islam deserves closer analysis. For it is this is act of audicity, rather than any simple obscenity, that the heart of the matter. One of the most interesting things about The Satanic Verses is that within it, we find inscribed versions of the very controversy over sacred so of In and profane writing which has colored the reception the book. text fact, Rushdie writes specifically about the authority of the of the text. Qur'an, and dramatizes the possibly fictional dimension of the sacred one a In The Satanic Verses, of Mahound's three helpers is Persian "with the unusual name of Salman," a name he shares with the author of the novel. Salman has been Mahound's scribe during the time that the Prophet into and his followers have been living away from Jahilia. Sneaking back to that city, a drunken Salman recounts another poet, named Baal, that it is his textual uncertainties that brought about his disillusionment with the " are a faith: 'The closer you to conjuror,' Salman bitterly replied, 'the too a easier to spot the trick'" (363). Salman suspects close relation be tween the angel Gibreel and Mahound himself: "he just laid down the law it so I to a in and the angel would confirm afterwards; began get bad smell must my nose, and I thought, this be the odour of those fabled and legend ary unclean creatures, what's their name, prawns' (364-365). sees over After a dream in which Salman himself hovering Mahound, Salman realizes that he couldn't tell whether his newly arch-angelic point or of view was that of the divinely authorized Gibreel, of Shaitan, who once verses. had falsely transmitted to Mahound the Satanic Salman the text. scribe decides to test Mahound by slightly altering the Mahound on re doesn't notice. "So Iwent with my devilment, changing verses," an consonant counts Salman. In exchange chillingly with the reception of
158 two are sure the novel, the earthly poets confer: "Baal asked, 'Why you he " will kill you?' Salman the Persian answered: 'It's his Word against mine' (368). to The orthodox chain of inspiration should go from archangel prophet to scribe, but in The Satanic Verses, that hierarchy is called into question. to in First, the prophet is suspected of dictating the archangel; then, this seen to dream, the scribe is dictating the prophet. The chain of command has been inverted, to feature the human writer. to Here it is important consider the history of the word "Shaitan." The Islam informs us that "Al-Shaitan is the chief of the evil Encyclopaedic of is a not is no spirits and shaitan spirit, though necessarily evil. There fixed as to tradition the relation of al-shaitan with the shaitans and other djin." The notion of a shaitan as "Satan" is borrowed from Judaism. The Arabic can sense as word shaitan be used in the of "genius," much in its original sense a same of inspiration by spirit. "Belonging to the order of ideas," the "is the belief that a was a Encyclopaedia adds, poet possessed by shaitan who inspired his words." In this generic and morally neutral usage, all human verse. on poetry is satanic In playing the synechdoche between Satan and us to on all inspirational spirits, The Satanic Verses asks reflect the transmis sion of fictions both sacred and profane. a In this regard, the Salman within the novel is double of Salman the as author, the writer of fiction. Fiction Europeans and Americans know it not a is longstanding practice in the Islamic world, which excels at story telling rather than novel-writing. Even in the West, there lurks the sus a a picion that fiction is somewhat dubious practice, socially sanctioned form of lying. The uneasy relations between history and novel-writing to have long been hard for Westerners explain to themselves. The award to was of the Nobel Prize Mahfouz largely for his work in establishing the as a no novel genre in Arabic. It is wonder that this is tough going for the Islamic world.
In The Satanic Verses, the chain of scriptural transmission shows the to a fiction-writer's word be version of the Holy Word, and Salman the to a scribe be version of the fictional prophet Mahound. Following the archangel Gibreel, Mahound recites; following Mahound, Salman tran recur scribes. This is the model of narration that will throughout Rushdie's even writing. The orthodox view stresses the continuity, the identity of the transmitted text. The Satanic Verses however stresses the room for im
159 one provisation and inversion at every step. With his small alteration, Sal man the scribe opens the door to the idea of fiction. Rather than simply rejecting orthodox belief about the origin of in reenacts spired texts, The Satanic Verses artistically multiple levels of not a case doubt. This is of alleged blasphemy that could be dealt with, even one were so an if inclined, by expunging the offending part the way an an editor might simply delete obscene expression in otherwise accept From able piece of writing. his first novel on, Salman Rushdie's special do main a a has been precisely this problem of possible artistic reordering of text. are sacred In Grimus, Rushdie's first novel (1975), the Gorfs intelli an gent beings, embodied in rock, who play elaborate game in which are given elements rearranged in new combinations. At the verbal level, new as we Gorfs recombine letters into words, might make the anagram out "lure" of the word "rule." But they carry it farther:
re The Gorfic obsession with anagram-making ranges from simple arrangement of word-forms to the exalted level of the Divine Game mere of Order. The Game extends far beyond letter-puzzling; the vast it mental powers of the Gorfs make possible for them anagram to own matically alter their very environment and indeed their physi . . . are as cal make-up. The Rules of the Game known Anagram mar. (Grimus 77)
a In recent review of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, Rushdie restates his admiration for anagrams:
turns out to an Hey, Frenes? be anagram of "free" and "sin," the two sides of her as nature, light and dark, just the hero of Gravity's to essense ana Rainbow, Tyrone Slothrop, could be made reveal his or grammatically, turning into "sloth" "entropy." Sure, it's still ole New Times working, that anagrammar. (The York Book Review, January 14, 1990)
turn we The anagrammatic of mind is somewhat obsessional, though in narrator should remember that Grimus, the explains that fiction-making itself is a kind of obsession. The Gorf of Calf Island is credited with trans the "And are we to be the least race in our forming question: actually intelligent
160 Endimions?" into the "Determine how an elite is: use our anagram: catalytic narrator talent and learning-lobe." The praises the transformation:
a use not This is perfect of Anagrammar; for only does it contain all more the letters of the Chiefest Question and only those letters, but over, it enriches the Question itself, adding to it the concept of catalysis and its origins, and instructions about how the question is to be answered." (Grimus 78-79)
a was not Amusing, yes, and little frightening. After all, this passage a We can be on written by Gorf. grateful, however, for Rushdie's gloss own concern his fiction, because his with reordering persists through all his novels. next more Rushdie's novel, Midnight's Children (1980), contains than one a to character with compelling desire make order out of given ele ments. Doctor Aadam Aziz, the grandfather of the narrator/protagonist is a a so of Midnight's Children, returned student from Heidelberg, reality a state removed from his home of Bombay that he spends his life in of pro tracted torn East doubt, between and West. The fledgling physician is to a called examine young female patient, whose modesty demands that he examine only the particular body part that is ailing. Aadam examines each a cut in a successive fragment through hole sheet that is held up in grand two women. theatrical style by strong-armed serving we The patient's father, infer, has guessed correctly that the young doc tor to would be drawn play this erotized version of the Divine Game of ana Order, for doctor and patient marry and their daughter applies this to lytical method her second husband, whom she breaks down mentally into can reconstruct as someone to small units, which she love: "Each day one she selected fragment of Ahmed Sinai, and concentrated her entire be it it ing upon until became wholly familiar" (75). Their child, the narrator of Midnight's Children, rediscovers the sheet through which his grand met uses it to act out a a parents and the part of ghost in nursery play. But it isAhmed Sinai whose life's goal is fit for a theologian: Ahmed to into correct longs rearrange the fragments of the Qur'an the chonologi a cal order. The Qur'an, explains the narrator, is transcription of Muham mad's Recitation. However, Muhammad did not recite in one fell swoop. The inspired recitation came in stages, each of which was written down separately:
161 on When Muhammad prophesied, people wrote down what he said were in a palm leaves, which kept any old how box. After he died, Abubakr and the others tried to remember the correct sequence; but they didn't have very good memories. (Midnight'sChildren 93)
to Two chapters of The Satanic Verses, "Mahound" and "The Return a re Jahilia," continue this fragmentation and recombination with comic treatment enactment of the founding of Islam. The of religion in these to re chapters ranges from the troubling the tasteless. One charge often in in Satanic of are peated the press is that The Verses, the wives the Prophet as is not an accurate ac portrayed prostitutes. This quite true, although not more count may be any palatable. to a to to a In "Return Jahilia," prostitute gets the idea pretend particu one lar customer, of the less than totally faithful, that she is Ayesha, the fa vorite wife of Mahound ?and, historically, the favorite wife of Muham mad. This is such a success that other residents of the brothel collude in
acting out the parts of Mahound's other eleven wives, and the brothel more more on an and takes the character of elaborate fictional reproduc set enacts tion of the Prophet's harem. Thus this of female characters within their domain the same concern with textual versions we saw earlier case not to see some in the of the male poet-prophets. It is difficult how people find this portrayal offensive. as a set in The brothel privileged theatrical space is up already Grimus, not re with its "House of the Rising Son"?yes, "son"; Islam is the only to come in ligion in for rough handling Rushdie ?governed by the male fiction that the resident women want whatever their male customers a an want. Grimus's House features further irreal gesture of being equal races serve opportunity brothel, where prostitutes of various and creeds both men and women. The whores include the Indian Kamala Sutra, the a two Chinese Lee Kok Fook, Black Florence Nightingale, and bisexual one one The madam is named prostitutes, male and female. Jocasta, per loves their mother first. haps in acknowledgment that everyone Under the previous madam, Liv, the whores had all been generalists. Jo room casta on the other hand insists that they specialize. Each of the as a over a a brothel is set up separate fantasy-stage, presided by sadist, nice a or and attendant theatrical girl, Tantrist, whatever. This specialization ity is further developed in The Satanic Verses, where the several sideshows
162 a reenactment the all work together in composite of the harem of Prophet. on one From the focus the brothel, might not guess the strength of women not characters generally in Rushdie's fiction. It is only in brothels women are that found running the show. Both Midnight's Children and are even Shame (1983) structured along family lines; Shame is prefaced by an tree elaborate genealogical charting the relations among the Shakil, are a Hyder, and Harappa families. Family units often controlled by a woman; the three Shakil sisters, for example, orchestrate sort of tri over partite quasi-virgin birth. The Hyder matriarch, Bariamma, presides a women are dormitory-like arrangement in which forty visited secretly once by their husbands Bariamma is asleep. The "dormitory" is also the site of storytelling, with its collection of stories making up the family. The transmission of family story shares with the transmission of sacred as we story the injunction against alteration, find in the introduction to Raza in "an extract from the family saga of and Bilquis, given the formu it a to laic words which would be gross sacrilege alter." (Shame 81). one Nevertheless, after the retelling of included story, the narrator adds, "It is possible that the above incident has been a little embellished during not one to its many tellings and retellings; but I shall be the question the veracity of oral tradition" (95). a sense Shame is woman's story, in the that the novel's inspiration is the a woman actual story of Pakistani murdered by her father in London, "be cause to a by making love white boy she had brought such dishonor upon nar her family that only her blood could wash away the stain" (123). The rator a new gives this girl name, "Anna Muhammad," linking this woman with the series of Prophet-characters, and launching her into fiction:
to a never Anna, deported, repatriated country she had seen, caught into a sort ... brain-fever and turned of idiot. Or maybe the fever was a lie . . . to cover the intended up damage done by repeated blows to the head. (125)
her out of that was not a Blows inflicted by mother, shame the child boy. not Rushdie does underestimate the force of repressed femaleness, in monster or whether the of Shame, in the banished goddesses of the "Satanic His are verses." male characters constantly faced with the conse of a as men quences system that, from the outside, looks though it gives
163 over women. can to great power Women be veiled the eyeballs, locked in one the house, and expunged from the official record, and yet comes away women are from these novels with the impression that these repressed the driving force of the world. An unusual number of Rushdie's male characters are in love with a
powerful sister. The protagonist of Grimus is given eternal life by his older sister, who has raised him, initiated him into sexual life, and whom he pursues for centuries. His sexual desire for her drives the plot. The Brass Monkey of Midnight's Children is the narrator/protagonist's younger sis ter, but she always has the upper hand. His love for her, contemptuously rejected, colors ?actually, it "scents" ?his sexual relations with all other women. most But the powerful female figure in all of Rushdie's fiction is mo Ayesha of The Satanic Verses. Her erotic magnetism is clear from the ment we see aman her, through the eyes of Mirza Saeed, who, standing in the bedroom he shares with his beloved wife, looks out the window at overcome Ayesha and is with lust. The compelling call of Ayesha is erotic, not to but only carnal. Ayesha is married the archangel, and her desire is Is a true or a return for the holy city. she female version of the Prophet, of the banished goddesses of the "Satanic verses" ? two The novel contains chapters, "Ayesha" and "The Parting of the one most narra Arabian Sea," that together form of the moving religious a tives of the twentieth century, magical realist story of great faith. a name Ayesha, modern-day visionary who shares the of the beloved wife to of Muhammad, is spoken by the archangel Gibreel. Like the earlier a com Prophet, she calls herself Messenger. An entire village heeds her to a on to mand undertake pilgrimage foot Mecca. man ? Even the wife of the village lord ?the who is in love with Ayesha prepares to go. This man can no more reason with his wife than with him at self about Ayesha's call. At last he says, "But least take the Mercedes sta can tion wagon. It's got air-conditioning and you take the icebox full of on run Cokes" (239). She goes foot. He drives slowly behind, providing ning commentary from the "station wagon of scepticism." account on The of the pilgrimage contains variations details from the as life of the Prophet. Muslims believe that, the founder of their religion to and his followers left the city of Mecca and traveled the place that would a be called Medina, "City of the Prophet," protective space hovered over Muhammad. In Rushdie's twentieth-century revisioning of the sacred pil
164 awoman as grimage, this time led by and with Mecca its goal, the protec as a ?one tive space is represented canopy of butterflies thinks of the yellow butterflies in another magical realist novel, Gabriel Garc?a M?r One Years tower quez's Hundred of Solitude. The of butterflies shades the at pilgrims, feeds and clothes their leader Ayesha, and the edge of the waters that separate the believers from the holy city, transforms itself into a come massive cloud of innumerable beating wings: the archangel to part the waters of the Arabian Sea.
Policemen interrogate the witnesses, who tell conflicting stories about sea the end of the pilgrims. Some say they walked into the and drowned; sea as on to others say the stood back the pilgrims walked the holy city. most comes The wrenching testimony from those who dived in to try to saw "save" the pilgrims. Like Moses, the divers the holy land, but could not cross over. One of them, Muhammad Din, testifies:
"Justwhen my strength had failed and I thought Iwould surely die there in the water, I saw it with my own eyes; I saw the sea divide, were like hair being combed; and they all there, far away, walking me. was away from She there also, my wife, Khadija, whom I loved." (504)
a more The police however request worldly explanation:
. . . "Don't shit from your mouth. Already the drowned bodies are to floating shore, swollen like balloons and stinking like hell. If you on we nose go lying will take you and stick your in the truth." (504-505)
" to our Another diver reports the village lord: 'It is shame that we were not to waters thought worthy accompany. On us, Sethji, the closed; they " in our slammed faces like the gates of Paradise' (505). Mirza Saeed, the sceptical, rational leader of the village, has lost both his to a to on wife and Ayesha vision denied him and is cast back the material shore:
out was When he found that he the only survivor of the Ayesha Haj not to waves. . . . have witnessed the parting of the [he] broke down
165 a a to and wept for week and day, the dry sobs continuing shake his tear run out body long after his ducts had of salt." (505).
are in The elements of the Ayesha Haj present the opening chapter of The Satanic Verses. The details ofthat version of the story of belief/non-be are more lief Westernized, with the historical and political dimension of to a allusions the actual hijacking of Canadian jetliner. And the conflict be tween versus one event ac material spiritual interpretations of is in this more more count pressing forWestern readers, who may feel themselves a a out threatened by possible hijacking than by pilgrimage that gets of runs hand. The trajectory of the novel, though, from the comic but to threatening opening scenario, through the burlesque brothel scene, the mystical display of belief on the Ayesha Haj. a From the first, Rushdie's conjunction of religious drama and drama of more sort profane is emphasized by the word "stars." We have been told are were were stars that the hijackers "all handsome, they actors, too, they or a in now, shootingstars falling" (78). Gibreel Farishta is "superstar" an actor theological movies, and Saladin Chamcha is who plays alien be on an ings TV. The religious drama enacted here has Aeschylean majesty that is missing from the brothel-harem comedy, but is taken up again in the Ayesha Haj. It is the abstract drama of great forces, of the conflict be tween time and eternity. And in this version of the drama, the starring a woman. role is played by one woman In larger-than-life gesture, the leader of the terrorists dis to on plays her armed body the captive actor-spectators the plane named for paradise:
on Then she slipped her robe back and spoke in her faint oceanic voice. "When a great idea comes into the world, a great cause, cer are tain crucial questions asked of it," she murmured. "History asks us: manner cause are we what of we? Are uncompromising, abso or com lute, strong, will we show ourselves to be timeservers, who " answer. promise, trim and yield? Her body provided the (81)
are runs "What kind of idea you?" This question through The Satanic once Verses. It is asked first of an idea when it is weak, and again it is strong. It is asked of Islam in the time of Muhammad/Mahound, when
166 over an the new idea hesitates making accommodation with the three god " kind of idea are It is desses of the original "Satanic verses": "What you? once an come to In voices male and asked again idea has power. female, human and The Satanic Verses asks this question of Islam today: angelic, " are "What kind of idea you?
167