Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie, born on 19 June 1947, is an Indian-born British-American novelist renowned for his contributions to literature. Rushdie's body of work often merges magic realism with historical fiction, focusing on the intricate relationships, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, predominantly set on the Indian subcontinent.

Rushdie's seminal work, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was later celebrated as "the best novel of all winners" during the prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries. However, his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), placed him at the center of controversy, leading to several assassination attempts and death threats against him, notably including a fatwa issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. This event sparked a global debate on censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, an attacker stabbed Rushdie during a lecture in Chautauqua, New York, highlighting the ongoing threats to his safety.

In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been honored with several prestigious awards, including being knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. He has been ranked 13th on The Times list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has resided in the United States, where he has continued his literary and academic career, including a tenure as Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University.

Rushdie's narrative style, often compared to Latin American magical realism, and his fiction's critical examination of various political and social ideologies have sparked several controversies. Despite these challenges, his literary achievements continue to be celebrated globally. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, detailing his life following the uproar over The Satanic Verses. Notably, Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.