View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Iowa Research Online Masthead Logo The Iowa Review Volume 20 Article 39 Issue 1 Winter 1990 Salman Rushdie's Satanic Narration Marlena G. Corcoran Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview Part of the Creative Writing Commons 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.