Adonis Diaries

Revisiting Salman Rushdie controversial book

“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdi, Part 1 (October 30, 2008)

This manuscript is of 547 pages and divided into 9 parts:

The Angel Gabriel (Gibreel), Mahound, Ellowen Deeowen, Ayesha, A city visible but unseen, Return to Jahilia, The Angel Azraeel, The Parting of the Arabian Sea, and A Wonderful lamp.

I will review the chapter “Mahound” because this section is crucial for setting the geo-political, commercial and society structure in Mecca and the neighboring towns. 

This description would help comprehend the climate within which Islam was born and grew.

Mahound is one of several names given to the Devil/Satan/Shaytan. 

It is very unfortunate that Rushdie decided to represent the Prophet Muhammad by this name just to state that one of the verses was inspired by the Devil, and thus forbade over one billion Muslims from reading this essentially wonderful and most informative book.

Many “fatwas” in the Muslim World, and especially in Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini, permitted the killing of Salman Rushdie for this blasphemy.

Rushdi has been since then protected by the British police and been mostly in hiding.  (See description of actual event in the Notes)

I feel that Muslims should be thankful to Rushdie in not naming Muhammad as the one who delivered the two “Satanic” verses that deviated from the message of One God.  I will use the name of Muhammad in the remaining review.

Mecca at the time of Muhammad was built four generation ago to cater for desert caravans bringing goods from Zafar and Yemen to bifurcate toward Egypt, Iraq/Iran, or Syria/Turkey and back to Mecca.

It barely rains in that region and the only potable well was called Zamzam. 

The story goes that Abraham abandoned his Egyptian wife Hagar and his son Ismail to their fate in this unforgiving area.  Luckily for Hagar, Angel Gabriel (Gibreel) uncovered for Hagar the well Zamzam and she survived with her newly born son.

Once a year, the Bedouins of Arabia Peninsula who adored 360 idols, which are imported from the neighboring countries to encourage pilgrimage to the Black Stone (Al Ka3ba), celebrated the passage of this same Abraham (Ibraheem) in the vicinity!

Mecca was structured around concentric dwellings starting from the Black Stone and fanning away.  Houses closest to the Black Stone belonged to the most prominent personalities (families) in the city council and their respective clans in the extended Kuraich (Shark) tribe.

There were four main clans and each clan was specialized in one kind of commerce; the Scarlet tents sold spices and scents, the Black tents cloth and leather, the Silver tents precious metals and swords and the fourth colored tents or the owners of the Dappled Camels specialized in entertainments, wine, hashish, and the slave trade. 

Water carriers were despised because any overflowing of water would damage the streets and homes built out of sand.

Around the year of 600 the businessmen in Mecca were losing trade to the sea transports. Worse, another new and famous Temple was built in Sheba in Yemen and pilgrims were investigating these new regions. 

The pilgrims were getting scarce in Mecca because they realized that they were being bilked (milked) from every penny they had and young girls were abducted for ransom.  Consequently, in order to keep afloat, the Kuraich tribe encouraged vile entertainment activities during the pilgrimage season to attract more customers.

The Black Stone enshrined around 360 idols brought from around the neighboring civilizations to entice pilgrims in from all around the regions.  The colossus Hubal the shepherd was sent by the Amalekites of Hit, the idol Kain was the patron of musicians and blacksmiths, Astarte (He-of-Shara) was brought by the Nabataean as well as saturnine Nakruh.  Manaf was the sun-god, in the eagle-form Nasr, Quzah or rainbow; Uzza the goddess of beauty and love, and Lat the all-powerful mother goddess.

The idol Allah had some sort of overall authority, an all-rounder in an age of specialist idols and thus was not that popular and didn’t generate money.

Hind, the all-powerful wife of the preeminent Karim Abu Simbel owned the three most famous goddesses of Al Lat, Manat, and Uzza.

Muhammad was rich (he married one of the richest women in Mecca Khadija), but he was an orphan and his clan was of lower stature and thus was Not represented in the city council.

His wife Khadija was about less than 5 years older than him and she had hired Muhammad to lead and manage her caravans heading to Damascus.

Khadija was the first person to believe in the message of Muhammad.  By the age of 44, Muhammad message of “No God but Allah” was not making any major breakthrough among the city dwellers. 

The lampoons of the very young and most famous poet named Baal were pinned up all over town “Messenger, do please lend a careful ear.  Your monophilia, your One, One, One, isn’t for Jahilia. Return to sender”

Beside his uncle Hamza and a few poor fellows, Not many were paying any attention to Muhammad revelations.  Among those poor individuals were Khalid the water carrier, Salman from Persia (who later would suggest to dig a wide ditch around Medina to prevent the cavalry of Kuraich to enter the town), and Bilal the mighty slave that Muhammad set free from his owner and would later be appointed the first official “muezzin” calling the believers to the five prayers of the day.

In order for his message to find a breakthrough, Muhammad was inclined to accept the deal of Abu Simbel. 

Abu Simbel would recognize Allah as the mightiest God and would offer Muhammad a seat in the city council in return of recognition of Al Lat, Manat, and Uzza as Goddesses or the best interceding goddesses to Allah. (Given that he owned these idols)

The clan of Hind, the Umayyad, owned these three most privileged Goddesses from pilgrimage revenues.

Muhammad thus returned from the Mount Cone and delivered publicly the verses stating that “Lat, Manat, and Uzza are the exalted birds, and their intercession is desired indeed”.  I guess these were the “Satanic verses” alluded to by Rushdie

The disciples of Muhammad were beside themselves and could not assent to accepting a God but Allah.  Muhammad did not dare face his wife Khadija that night and did not enter his house.

Follow the story in the next part or the chapter “Return to Jahilia” https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/the-satanic-verses-part-2/

Note 1: The prophet belonged to a Christian sect deemed heretic by Byzantium and his uncle was the bishop in Mecca. I conjecture that Muhammad believed in the Trinity and paid special worship to the Virgin Mary.

Probably, this verse in his mind was in the spiritual sphere and Not literally adopting any idol of the Jahiliya, but people were literal in their interpretations.

Note 2: Finally, after 3 decades to the fatwa, a young man of 24 decided to fulfill the Fatwa and stabbed Salman 10 times while delivering a lecture in the USA, a country that he settled in. Rushdi did Not die (yet) but he will be physically greatly diminished