(Submission is the literal translation of the word ‘Islam.’) The religion is unique for being monotheistic in an exclusively polytheistic culture. It follows Mahound – an analog for Mohammed – a businessman who starts a new religion called Submission in the pagan city of Jahilia. This vision introduces the Jahilia subplot, which is a revisionist retelling of the early history of Islam. However, while over the English Channel, the hijackers fought amongst themselves, and accidentally detonated the plane.ĭuring the fall from the airplane, Gibreel has the first of several elaborate visions. The doomed flight was hijacked by four Sikh nationalists, who landed it in the desert and held the passengers hostage for 111 days. Right before he leaves to return to London, Saladin breaks up with Zeeny because he felt she was too sympathetic to his father, Changez. He falls in with Zeeny’s friends, George Miranda and Bhupen Gandhi, both of whom are active in left-wing politics. There, he started an affair with an old friend, Zeeny Vakil. Shortly before the fateful flight, he returned to India to perform in a George Bernard Shaw play. He married a beautiful but troubled white woman named Pamela Lovelace. After university, Saladin became a voice actor and shortened his name for commercial reasons. He became estranged from his father when Changez remarried Saladin was particularly incensed that his new stepmother had the same name as his actual mother – Nasreen. He always dreamed of moving to London, and got his wish when his father sent him to boarding school there. Saladin, born Salahuddin Chamchawala, grew up in Bombay, where he was molested by an older man and had a troubled relationship with his father, Changez Chamchawala. Although Gibreel’s affair with Alleluia was brief, it inspired him to follow her to London to start a new life.

Her ghost haunts Gibreel for the rest of the novel. Out of jealousy, his former lover, Rekha Merchant, committed suicide. Soon after his recovery, he met and fell in love with Alleluia Cone, an English mountain climber. This caused him to lose his faith in God. Shortly before the fateful flight, Gibreel had a bout with mental illness, but recovered. When his parents died, he moved in with a foster family, the patriarch of which eventually arranged for him to become an actor. Gibreel had a hardscrabble youth – he started working as a delivery boy as a teenager.

The narrator gives some background on the two men. Two passengers plummet down to the water and survive: Gibreel Farishta, a famous Bollywood actor, and Saladin Chamcha, an obscure voice actor who lives in London. The jumbo jet Bostan explodes over the English Channel.

The satanic verses book buy