If one looks at history as a whole, it could be argued that one of the more famous Asian authors is British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie. He has earned numerous literary awards as well as honorary degrees and positions from many universities in Europe and the USA. He even was made sir Salman Rushdie by the Queen of England. As a writer, Rushdie has authored eleven novels which have been translated into forty languages. Regardless of his other countless successes, Rushdie may be most well known to the masses due to his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses. After its release in the late 1980s, the leader of lran issued a death sentence on Rushdie because of his book. Rushdie was charged with writing against lslam, the Prophet, and the Muslim holy book, the Quran. For nine years, the author was forced to go into hiding. Despite this drama, Rushdie continued to write, as he does to this day.