When Salman Rushdie wrote his novel The Satanic Verses in September 1988, he thought its various religious references might recieve some backlash.
Although the Indian-born author often combines magical realism with historical fiction, this book made a number of references to Muhammad, the Quran, and Islam - the faith in which he was raised.
It sparked outrage.
Following the book's release, many Muslims considered its contents to be blasphemous, and a fatwā - death sentence - was issued for Rushdie by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
The book was banned in several countries, including Bangladesh, Sudan, Sri Lanka and India. Many died in protests against its publication, books were burned and bookstores were bombed.
The fatwā also called for anyone else involved in the publication of the book to be assassinated, and in 1991, the novel’s Japanese translator was killed, and the Italian translator was stabbed, though he survived.
Rushdie went into hiding for the next decade - he moved into a safe house with his wife under the protection of the British police and never disclosed his location.
And although the fatwā stopped being formally backed by Iran's government in 1998, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the bounty for Rushdie from USD $2.8 million to $3.3 million in 2012.
Since then, Rushdie, 75, has continued writing, having since published eight novels and a 2012 memoir about the fatwā.
He now lives freely in New York and appears without security even at large events.
But on Friday, Rushdie was brutally attacked at a literary festival at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.
Just before the Booker Prize-winning novelist was about to give a talk about how United States as a safe haven for exiled writers, a man rushed onto the stage and stabbed Rushdie in the neck and abdomen.
A state police officer at the event immediately arrested the man, who was later identified by authorities as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from New Jersey.
The audience was calmly evacuated from the auditorium, and the festival was cancelled for the day.
Rushdie was taken to a hospital by helicopter, and underwent urgent surgery. He is now on a ventilator.
"The news is not good," Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, told the New York Times on Friday evening US time.
"Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged."
The author was accompanied on stage by Henry Reese, the co-founder of a residency program for writers living in exile under threat of persecution. He reportedly suffered a minor head injury.
At the time of reporting, officials do not have any indication of a motive and charges have not been filed. They are currently reviewing evidence and monitoring Rushdie's condition.
Iran has not yet officially commented on the attack against the author. But supporters of the government took to social media to praise the stabbing.
More to come.
Feature image: Getty.
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