What was The Satanic Verses written about?

The Satanic Verses is British-Indian author Salman Rushdie’s fourth book. The book, which came out for the first time in September 1988, was based on the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As in his other books, Rushdie used magical realism and based his characters on real-life events and people.

The title refers to the Satanic Verses, which are a group of verses from the Quran that talk about three Meccan goddesses who were not religious: Allt, Al-Uzza, and Mant. The part of the story about the “satanic verses” was based on what historians al-Waqidi and al-Tabari said about them.

 

What were The Satanic Verses written about?

The part of the story about the “satanic verses” was based on what historians al-Waqidi and al-Tabari said about them.

The Satanic Verses is made up of a frame story with elements of magical realism and a number of side stories that are told as dreams that one of the main characters has. Like many of Rushdie’s other stories, the frame story is about Indians who live in England now. Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, who play the two main characters, are both actors who come from an Indian Muslim background. Farishta is a big star in Bollywood, and she is best known for playing Hindu gods. (The character is partly based on Amitabh Bachchan and N. T. Rama Rao, two Indian movie stars.) Chamcha is an immigrant who left India and now lives and works in England as a voiceover artist.

At the start of the book, they are both stuck on a plane that has been taken over and is flying from India to Britain. Over the English Channel, the plane blows up, but the two people on board are miraculously saved. Farishta changes into the archangel Gabriel, and Chamcha becomes a devil. Chamcha is arrested and treated badly by the police because they think he is an illegal immigrant.

On a realistic level, part of Farishta’s change can be seen as a sign that the main character is getting schizophrenia.

Both of these people are trying to put their lives back together. Farishta goes looking for his lost love, the English mountaineer Allie Cone, and finds her. However, his mental illness makes it hard for them to be together.

Chamcha, who has magically changed back into a human, wants to get back at Farishta for leaving him after they both fell from the hijacked plane. He does this by making Farishta’s pathological jealousy worse, which makes his relationship with Allie fall apart.

In another dangerous situation, Farishta finds out what Chamcha did, but she forgives him and even helps him to stay alive.

Both will go back to India. Farishta throws Allie off a high building out of jealousy again, and then she kills herself. Chamcha decides to stay in India because he has not only found forgiveness from Farishta but also peace with his estranged father and a sense of who he is as an Indian.