Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947, in Bombay, now Mumbai, India) is an acclaimed Indian-born British-American novelist and essayist, best known for his innovative blend of magical realism, historical fiction, and explorations of cultural migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations. His breakthrough came with the 1981 novel 'Midnight's Children,' which won the Booker Prize and was later voted the best Booker winner on its 25th and 40th anniversaries. His 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses' provoked widespread outrage in the Muslim world, leading Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his death in 1989, forcing Rushdie into hiding for nearly a decade under police protection. This incident transformed him into a global symbol of free speech and artistic freedom, for which he has been a vocal advocate, supporting organizations like PEN International. He is a defender of free speech and PEN International supporter. Holding citizenship in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Rushdie has lived much of his adult life in the UK and now resides in New York City. Knighted in 2007, he has received numerous accolades, including the Whitbread Prize and the European Union's Aristeion Prize. In 2022, he survived a stabbing attack in New York, an event linked to the lingering fatwa. Rushdie's personal life includes four marriages and two sons, and he continues to engage in public discourse on literature, secularism, and human rights.