The Satanic Verses

The "big topic" (8) of reincarnation has fascinated Gibreel for a long time. At the peak of his fame as a movie star in Bollywood, he was struck down with a terrible illness. He managed to survive, but in the period after his recovery, he vanished from the set of a film. The disappearance infuriated his colleague Miss Pimple Billimoria. To get revenge on Gibreel, she told people that he suffered from the "breath of rotting cockroach dung" (9). The only clue to Gibreel's disappearance was a note left in his luxurious apartment, which claimed that "we are creatures of air, Our roots in dreams And clouds, reborn In flight" (9). Thinking that the final "goodbye" (9) was a suicide note, Rekha Merchant was so distraught that she jumped from the top of a tall building with her children. The newspapers were filled with gossip about a possible relationship between Rekha and Gibreel; these "whispers blamed Gibreel" (10).

Onboard Flight AI-410, Gibreel chats to Saladin, sinking into "forgivable rhapsodies" (12). He tells Saladin that he was born with the name Ismail Najmuddin. His father and his mother were poor people who lived in Bombay. They both died when Gibreel was young, so he was adopted by his father's former boss Babasaheb Mhatre who struggled to conceive a child with his wife. Through Babasaheb, Gibreel found a job at a Bollywood studio because he is "too damn goodlooking to carry tiffins on his head all his life" (15). He adopted the stage name Gibreel Farishta in tribute to his dead parents and, after several smaller roles, became famous for playing the role of numerous gods in theological films. During this period, Gibreel became "irresistibly attractive to women" (16). Gibreel mistreated women, but they always forgave him, leading him to assume that he was "doing nothing wrong" (17). Among his string of affairs was a married woman named Rekha Merchant, who "spared him nothing" (18) and criticized him constantly for his many flaws, but she could also not help but forgive him.

During the terrible sickness that kept him away from work, Gibreel begged Allah to save him. He seemed close to death as the entire country mourned his sickness, though Rekha "placed iron around her heart" (19) and refused to contact him. When Allah did not respond, he lost his faith. When he finally recovered, he decided to prove the nonexistence of Allah by feasting on gluttonous quantities of pork. During this feast, he met a mountain climber named Alleluia Cone, who pointed out to him that he survived. She challenged him to "change your life, or did you get it back for nothing" (20). He soon fell in love with the blonde Englishwoman and ended his affair with Rekha, whom he left crying in her apartment and never saw again. However, the whirlwind romance with Alleluia did not last longer than a few days. When she went back to England, Gibreel abandoned his film roles to chase after "the challenge of her" (21). Pursuing Alleluia is why Gibreel was onboard Flight AI-140. 

As Flight AI-420 lifts off, Saladin prays for good luck. He thinks about the recent "strange and worrying developments" (22) in his life and how they have affected him physically, such as altering his voice. He reflects on his childhood. Saladin grew up in Bombay. He remembers how he once found a wallet stuffed with British bank notes on the street. Before he could open the wallet, his father Changez Chamchawala took "the thick wad of foreign currency" (23) from him. He also remembers his father's "magic lamp, a brightly polished copper-and-brass avatar of Aladdin's very own genie-container" (24), but was told that he could not touch it until he inherited it after his father's death. From a young age, Saladin was so certain that he would one day leave Bombay for London that he nicknamed the English capital "ellowen deeowen" (24). After being sexually assaulted by a stranger on a beach, Saladin hated his home country and decided that he "must also escape Bombay, or die" (25). His father granted his son's wish by sending Saladin to boarding school in Great Britain. Taking Saladin to London, his father returned the wallet to him, still containing the foreign currency. However, he then demanded that his son use the money to "look after your old father while we are in London town" (27) and made him pay all the bills.

After five years in the English boarding school, Saladin's distaste for India became immeasurable. He adopted an anglicized spelling of his name and changed his accent. He visited his parents, and his father disliked his "contempt for his own country" (29). Their relationship became cold and distant. His mother Nasreen choked on a fishbone, and Saladin left India again soon after her death to attend an English university. In India, his father married another woman who was "also called Nasreen" (30), and the tensions between Saladin and his religious father increased. As a result, Saladin chose to stay in London after graduating from university. He found work as an actor and refused to return home, much to the displeasure of his father, who threatened that Saladin would never "inherit the magic lamp" (31). Saladin met and married an Englishwoman named Pamela Lovelace. Pamela's family history was marked by the tragic suicide of her parents. Her trauma affected her marriage to Saladin, as did their struggles to conceive a child because they were "over their heads in gambling debts" (32). During this time, Saladin struggled in his career and the couple could not have children. He took an acting role that required him to travel to India.

While in his homeland, Saladin had an affair with a writer and childhood friend named Zeenat Vakil. She was "the first Indian woman he had ever made love to" (33), but her interest and passion for Indian culture was wasted on Saladin; despite her efforts to rekindle his patriotism, he kept his "Angrez accent wrapped around [him] like a flag" (34). His distaste for his homeland reached a nadir when he became embroiled in a heated political discussion in a busy bar. Lying in bed that night with Zeeny, Saladin barely recognized himself or his country. She teased him for his acting career. Together with a Jewish woman named Mimi Mamoulian, Saladin had "ruled the airwaves of Britain" (38), but the English people never accepted him as one of their own. He decided to return to England, where he felt more at home, even though his most recent and successful acting role on a children's television show drew "political criticism" (40).

Taking Zeenat with him, Saladin visited his father before leaving India. At his family home, he noticed that the housekeeper's wife was wearing clothes that once belonged to his mother. Saladin knew that his father was having an affair with the woman. He confronted his father, who explained that he had "worked things out" (43) with the housekeeper and his wife. Horrified and disgusted, feeling betrayed by Zeenat in "the house of his father's perversions" (45), Saladin left and boarded Flight AI-420. On the flight, he recognized "the woman of his dreams" (46). 

While travelling on Flight AI-420, Saladin sees a woman whom he recognizes from a nightmare that featured "a woman bomber with an almost inaudibly soft, Canadian-accented voice" (47). He also spots the "vanished superstar" (47), Gibreel Farishta. During the flight, Saladin talks to Eugene Dumsday, the American man next to him. Eugene has spent time in India trying to warn the local people about the "evolutionary heresy" (48) of Charles Darwin. The conversation is awkward and Saladin is happy when it is over, allowing him to sleep. When he wakes up, he discovers that four terrorists have hijacked the plane. The terrorists are wearing suicide bombs and force the plane to land at a remote airstrip in the Middle East. When the female terrorist speaks, Saladin recognizes her Canadian accent from his dreams.

The plane lands, but the terrorists keep many of the passengers hostage for 111 days. Eugene complains that he is not one of the 50 people released by the terrorists; one of the hijackers hits him on the chin and forces him to bite through "the tip of his tongue" (50), which falls in Saladin's lap. The terrorists sit Gibreel next to Saladin. Gibreel admits that he does not want to fall asleep because the huge quantities of pork he ate have caused him to suffer from terrible nightmares. Gibreel explains that, in these dreams, he is the archangel Gibreel and is summoned to various places. In long, exhausting "tirades" (53) to Saladin, Gibreel also mentions his desire to see Alleluia Cone again. On the 111th day, the female terrorist Tavleen murders a hostage named Jalandri. The plane takes off again. During the flight, however, a fight breaks out between the increasingly desperate terrorists. Tavleen detonates the bomb strapped to her body. 

Gibreel falls from the plane and experiences a vision. He witnesses Shaitan (the Arabic word for Satan) being thrown out of heaven. He sees Ibrahim (the Muslim version of Abraham) abandon Hagar and her son, forcing them to wander through the desert. His vision draws closer to the same "businessman" (56) who is at the center of all his dreams: Mahound (an alternative name for the Muslim prophet, Muhammad). In Gibreel's dream, Mahound ascends to the top of Cone Mountain near the town of Jahilia that is "built entirely of sand" (57). Mahound is 44 years old on this day and about to form "one of the world's great religions" (58). At the top of the mountain, the archangel Gibreel appears to him and informs Mahound that there is only one God: Allah. Mahound listens to Gibreel describe this version of monotheistic religion. In Jahilia, a wealthy businessman named Karim Abu Simbel walks through the streets during a religious festival. Abu Simnel meets a "proud, arrogant" (60) young poet named Baal and accompanies him to a temple dedicated to the goddess Lat. At the temple, Abu Simnel beats Baal, who is accused of having an affair with Abu Simnel's wife, Hind. Abu Simnel controls the temple of Al-Lat, the goddess, whose "name makes her Allah's opposite and equal" (61). After the beating, he instructs the young writer to compose a satirical poem criticizing Mahound and the small group of followers he has assembled. These followers include Salman, Khalid, and Bilal.

Abu Simnel visits his concubines, wondering why a powerful man such as himself would "fear Mahound" (62). As they wash and care for him, he loses interest in his wife's affair so long as she is discreet. Mahound's preaching is a bigger problem, he decides. During this time, Abu Simnel advises the people of Jahilia that they can make plenty of money by becoming "a gambling den, a whorehouse, a place of bawdy songs and wild, loud music" (63). Baal works on his poem about Mahound. He mocks Mahound and his followers. Mahound considers "a deal" (64) from Abu Simnel, which offers to officially permit Mahound new monotheistic religion but only if Mahound incorporates three minor goddesses into the faith. Lat, Uzza, and Manat are three local goddesses who—Abu Simnel proposes—will become minor deities in Mahound’s religion. In return, Mahound will be allowed to preach and will be given a say in how Jahilia is governed. Mahound is undecided. Khalid, Salman, and Bilal tell him to reject what they believe to be “a trap” (65), but Mahound's uncle Hamza suggests that Mahound consult the archangel Gibreel. Mahound ascends the mountain again.

In the vision, Gibreel is playing the dual roles of Mahound and the archangel. The meetings between the two are strange to him. When Mahound meets with the archangel, Gibreel wonders how he is "supposed to know the answers" (66). Instead, he listens. Eventually, Mahound has "some kind of vision" (69) of the archangel speaking with a voice that apparently does not belong to Gibreel. He returns to Jahilia and shares the verses from the archangel. He accepts the offer for the "intercession" (70) of the goddesses into his new religion.

That night, Mahound's followers are attacked, but they fight back against their mysterious assailants and chase them away. After, they discover that two of the dead attackers are related to Hind. Mahound cannot sleep. He wanders his courtyard in a "random sequence of unconscious geometries" (72). He collapses and wakes up to find himself in Hind's house. They talk about religion and the impending competition between Allah and the other gods that "cannot end in truce" (74). Mahound leaves and—when he is gone—Hind learns that two of her brothers died in the assault on Mahound's followers. Mahound climbs back up the mountain and "wrestles" (75) with the archangel. After a long fight, Mahound willingly surrenders. When he returns to Jahilia, he announces that the previous verses he received from Gibreel were actually composed by Shaitan rather than Allah. He strikes these "Satanic verses" (76) from his religion and, in doing so, rejects Abu Simnel's offer. That night, Hind’s thugs murder Mahound's wife. Mahound and his followers are chased out of Jahilia. They leave Gibreel alone at the top of the mountain. The goddesses Uzza, Lat, and Manat turn themselves into "three winged creatures" (77) and attack Gibreel.