The Angel Gibreel

The Satanic Verses begins with a description of Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha falling from a plane into the English Channel and surviving. Gibreel is flying to London to find his lover, Alleluia Cone, while Saladin is coming home from an acting gig in Bombay. Before blowing up the plane, terrorists hijack their jumbo jet and hold them captive for one hundred and ten days, during which time Gibreel fights against the sleep that brings him vivid religious dreams.

Mahound

Chapter 2 dramatizes Gibreel's dream about the experience of the chief Islamic prophet Muhammad, whom the narrator calls Mahound, in the city of Jahilia. It refers to Muhammad's period of persecution in Mecca and the episode in which several "satanic verses" were alleged to have been told to Muhammad and later expunged from the Qur'an. After several confrontations with the Grandee of Jahilia, his wife, and...