Salman Rushdie Knighthood Confers By Queen Elizabeth II

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie - (born June 19, 1947) is an Indian-British novelist and essayist. He first achieved fame with his second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), led to protests from Muslims in several countries, some of which were violent. Faced with death threats and a fatwā (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Supreme Leader of Iran, which called for him to be killed, he spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. In June 2007, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor for "services to literature", which "thrilled and humbled" him. In 2007, he began a five-year term as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University.

LONDON - A year after the award was announced, Queen Elizabeth II conferred a knighthood on author Salman Rushdie on Wednesday. The announcement of the knighthood had provoked protests from the Muslim world.

In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence on Rushdie, accusing him of blasphemy in his novel "The Satanic Verses."

"I really have no regrets about any of my work," he told reporters after being asked about "The Satanic Verses."

"This is, as I say, an honor not for any specific book but for a very long career in writing, and I'm happy to see that recognized."

Rushdie was forced to accept round-the-clock protection.

The Iranian government withdrew the death sentence in 1998, and Rushdie has gradually returned to public life.

"It's been a long time. My first novel was published 33 years ago, but I think the thing you hope to do as a writer is leave behind a shelf of interesting books, and it's great just to have that work recognized," Rushdie told reporters.

He added: "At this stage, you know, it's certainly not a day to talk about controversy. It's a day for myself and my family to celebrate this."

Personal Life

The only son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a Cambridge University-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Butt, a teacher, Rushdie was born in Mumbai (once known as Bombay), India. He was educated at Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Rugby School, and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history. He worked for two advertising agencies (Ogilvy & Mather and Ayer Barker) before becoming a full-time writer.

Rushdie has been married four times. His first wife was Clarissa Luard, to whom he was married from 1976 to 1987 and with whom he has a son, Zafar. His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan. In 2004, he got married to the Indian actress and model Padma Lakshmi, the host of the American reality-television show Top Chef and that marriage ended on July 2, 2007 with Rushdie indicating that it was her desire to end the marriage.

In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct a "tendon condition" that, according to him, was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.

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