Hitoshi Igarashi

Hitoshi Igarashi
Born	10 June 1947
Died	12 July 1991
Notable works	Translation of The Satanic Verses
Spouse	Michiko Igarashi

Hitoshi Igarashi (五十嵐 一, Igarashi Hitoshi, 10 June 1947 – 12 July 1991) was a Japanese scholar of Arabic and Persian literature and history and the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.

Early life and education

Igarashi was born in 1947.^[1] He completed his doctoral programme in Islamic art at the University of Tokyo in 1976, and was research fellow at the Royal Academy of Iran until the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Career

Igarashi was an associate professor of comparative Islamic culture at the University of Tsukuba.^[2] He translated Ibni Sina's The Canon of Medicine by Avicenna and Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses^[3] and wrote books on Islam, including The Islamic Renaissance and Medicine and Wisdom of the East.^[4]

Death

After Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989, calling for the death of "the author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an, and all those involved in its publication who are aware of its content", he was stabbed repeatedly in the face and arms by an unknown assailant and died. His body was found on 12 July 1991 in his office at the University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.^[1][4]

In 2006, the case was closed without having determined any suspects. Kenneth M. Pollack alleged in The Persian Puzzle that the attack was a covert operation by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In 2010, Bungeishunjū reported a rumor circulating among the Japanese immigration authority that a young and wealthy Bangladeshi committed the murder then flew back to his home country the next day, before it was discovered. According to the unverified rumor, Japan had refused to extradite the suspect from Bangladesh due to fears of inflaming anger over the Satanic Verses controversy.

References