But it was his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, which became his most controversial work - bringing about international turmoil unprecedented in its scale.
Death threats were made against Rushdie, who was forced to go into hiding after its publication, and the British government placed the author under police protection.
The UK and Iran broke off diplomatic relations, but throughout the Western world authors and intellectuals denounced the threat to freedom of expression posed by Muslim reaction to the book.
He became a British citizen, and allowed his Muslim faith to lapse. He worked briefly as an actor - he had been in the Cambridge Footlights - and then as an advertising copywriter, while writing novels.
His first published book, Grimus, did not achieve huge success, but some critics saw him as an author with significant potential.
Rushdie took five years to write his second book, Midnight's Children, which won the 1981 Booker Prize, was widely acclaimed and sold half a million copies.
Where Midnight's Children had been about India, Rushdie's third novel Shame - released in 1983 - was about a scarcely disguised Pakistan. Four years later, Rushdie wrote The Jaguar Smile, an account of a journey in Nicaragua.
In September 1988, the work that would endanger his life, The Satanic Verses, was published. The surrealist, post-modern novel sparked outrage among some Muslims, who considered its content to be blasphemous.
Information reads: "We are deeply shocked and appalled to hear of the attack on Salman Rushdie while he was speaking at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. We condemn this violent public assault, and our thoughts are with Salman and his family at this distressing time.
– Markus Dohle, CEO, PRH."
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