Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed on stage at the Chautauqua Institution, New York. The assailant, Hadi Matar, who was apprehended is seemingly an Ayatollah Khomeini sympathizer. The then-Supreme Leader of Iran had issued a fatwa against Rushdie in 1989 after The Satanic Verses came out the previous year, and Muslims were angered because they believed the 75-year-old’s fourth book disparaged Prophet Mohammad. 

On August 3, 1989, a man attempted to detonate a book bomb with RDX, but a premature explosion in the posh Paddington hotel ensured that he became the first Rushdie martyr, while the author escaped death. However, not everyone involved with The Satanic Verses has had the same luck. 

Ettore Capriolo

Rushdie’s Italian translator was attacked in June 1991 by a man pretending to seek a translation of a Muslim pamphlet. He identified himself as Iranian and escaped after attacking the 61-year-old. Capriolo suffered injuries to the neck, hands, and chest. New York Times reported the authorities saying the assailant had told Capriolo he had a “connection” to the Iranian embassy in Rome. 

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Hitoshi Igarashi 

The Japanese translator of Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was found slain at a university to the northeast of Tokyo in July 1991. The 44-year-old was an assistant professor of comparative culture and police reported that he’d been stabbed many times and left in the hallway outside his office at Tsukuba University. 

William Nygaard 

The Norwegian edition of The Satanic Verses came out two months after the fatwa. Almost immediately, Nygaard received direct threats and was given police protection for some time. 

On October 11, 1993, he was shot three times outside his home in Dagaliveien, Oslo. He recovered gradually after spending time at the Sunnaas Hospital. 

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Aziz Nesin 

The Turkish translator of The Satanic Verses was targeted by a mob of arsonists who set fire to the Madimak Hotel, in July 1993, in Sivas, Turkey. 

They managed to kill 37 people, most of them Alevi scholars, musicians, and poets. Nesin escaped since the fundamentalist mob failed to recognize him at the time of the attack, which is remembered as the Sivas massacre to date.