(born 1947), Indian-born British novelist; full name Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie. His work, chiefly associated with magic realism, includes Midnight's Children (Booker Prize, 1981) and The Satanic Verses (1988). The latter, regarded by Muslims as blasphemous, caused Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa in 1989 condemning Rushdie to death. In 1998 the Iranian government dissociated itself from the fatwa.