Salman Rushdie testifies about his shock and pain as an attacker repeatedly stabbed him on stage

MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — With a mix of humor and graphic detail, Salman Rushdie calmly told a jury Tuesday about the frenzied moments in August 2022 when a masked man rushed at him on a stage in western New York and repeatedly slashed him with a knife, leaving him with terrible injuries.

“It occurred to me that I was dying. That was my predominant thought,” the renowned author said, adding that the people who subdued the assailant likely saved his life.

Just a short drive from where the attack at the Chautauqua Institution occurred, Rushdie took the stand during the second day of testimony at the trial of Hadi Matar, 27, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the attack, which also wounded another man.

It was the first time since the stabbing that the 77-year-old writer found himself in the same room as Matar, whom Rushdie refused to even name when he looked back on the day in his 2023 memoir, “Knife.” The book called him “the A,” as in assassin, or assailant or asinine.

In the memoir Rushdie imagined a conversation with his assailant, fabricating a dialogue — a strained attempt at understanding — they might have had should the two ever speak.

But on Tuesday they hardly seemed to acknowledge each other. Rushdie on occasion looked off to his right, where the defendant sat some 20 feet (6 meters) away, but showed no sign of recognition. Matar, with attorneys on either side, rarely raised his head while Rushdie spoke.

District Attorney Jason Schmidt did not ask Rushdie to identify Matar. Rushdie testified that he got just a brief look at the man who rushed across the stage and stabbed him repeatedly with a 10-inch (25 centimeter) knife.

In testimony stricken from the record at the defense’s request, he added: “I was very struck by his eyes, which were dark and seemed very ferocious.”

Rushdie said he first thought his attacker was striking him with a fist. “But I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes,” he said. “He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing.”

The testimony came just ahead of the 36th anniversary of the day — Feb. 14, 1989 — that Rushdie has ruefully referred to as the worst possible Valentine’s Day, when Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his death because of the supposed blasphemy in his novel “The Satanic Verses.”

Rushdie spent years in hiding, a wrenching adjustment for an otherwise engaging and sociable man. But after Iran announced that it would not enforce the decree, he had traveled freely over the past quarter century, and security lightened to the point where his Chautauqua talk was announced months in advance.

Several law enforcement cars were in front of the courthouse Tuesday morning, and security was also present on the rooftop of the jail across the street.

Matar is a dual Lebanese-U.S citizen, born in the U.S. to immigrants from Yaroun in Hezbollah-dominated southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, according to the village’s mayor. In a jailhouse interview with the New York Post, he did not refer directly to “The Satanic Verses” but called Rushdie someone “who attacked Islam.”

On the trial’s first day, Mahar calmly said “Free Palestine” while being led into the courtroom. On Tuesday he said in a dull chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The trial is expected to last around two weeks.

In a separate indictment, federal authorities allege that Matar was driven to act by a terrorist organization’s 2006 endorsement of the fatwa. A later trial on federal terrorism charges will be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Buffalo.

Rushdie, dressed in a plain, dark suit, spoke in an even, mild tone, even when recounting how he lay in a “lake” of blood. He briefly bared to the jurors his now-blinded right eye, usually hidden behind a darkened eyeglass lens.

Born in India, raised in Britain and now a U.S. citizen, Rushdie is a Booker Prize-winning author who has been famous worldwide since “Midnight’s Children” was published more than 40 years ago. He has long been known for his eloquence, candor and wit that can surface in unexpected moments.

Under direct examination Rushdie spoke of undergoing painful surgery to seal the lid of his blinded eye. He turned to the jurors, and joked, “I don’t recommend it.”

Under cross examination from public defender Lynn Schaffer, who challenged his memories of the attack, he acknowledged that it was hard to say precisely how many times he was stabbed: “I wasn’t counting at the time. I was otherwise occupied.”

Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center, where he relearned basic skills like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. He detailed his months of recovery in “Knife.”

“I think I’m not quite at 100%. I think I’ve substantially recovered, but it’s probably 75% to 80%,” Rushdie testified. “I’m not as energetic as I used to be. I’m not as physically strong as I used to be.”

Rushdie's wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, sat in the second row in the courtroom. In 2022 she took an emergency private flight to be at his side after being told he was unlikely to survive, and he dedicated a chapter of his book to her.

Griffiths cried at times, fanning herself and gripping the hand of a friend sitting beside her. As Rushdie left the room after his testimony, she smiled warmly at him and clasped her hands across her chest.

Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.

In this courtroom sketch, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Salman Rushdie's wife, second left, is seated in the courtroom as her husband testifies, during the trial of Hadi Matar, in Chautauqua County court, in Mayville, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Hadi Matar, left, talks with his defense team before leaving the courtroom at the Chautauqua County courthouse after his second day of trial, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hadi Matar talks with his defense team before leaving the courtroom at the Chautauqua County courthouse after his second day of trial, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

In this courtroom sketch, Hadi Matar, second from left, stares at Salman Rushdie as he walks into court to testify at Chautauqua County Court, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Maryville, N.Y. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

In this courtroom sketch, District Attorney Jason Schmidt, left, questions Salman Rushdie, right, on the witness stand, as Judge David Foley presides during the trial of Hadi Matar, in Chautauqua County court, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Hadi Matar sits at the defense table before the start of the second day of his trial at the Chautauqua County Courthouse, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hadi Matar is escorted into the courtroom at the Chautauqua County Courthouse ahead of the second day in his trial, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

In this courtroom sketch, Salman Rushdie testifies on the witness stand, during the trial of Hadi Matar, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 in Mayville, N.Y. showing how he was stabbed in the eye, when he was attacked in 2022. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Hadi Matar, center, is escorted into the courtroom at the Chautauqua County Courthouse ahead of the second day in his trial, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hadi Matar is escorted into the courtroom at the Chautauqua County Courthouse ahead of the second day in his trial, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hadi Matar, center, stands at the defense table with his attorneys before the start of the second day of his trial at the Chautauqua County Courthouse, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Mayville, N.Y. Matar is charged with stabbing famed author Salman Rushdie. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hadi Matar, center, charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack, is led out of Chautauqua County court in Mayville, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Hadi Matar, center, charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack, speaks to his defense team in Chautauqua County court in Mayville, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

In this courtroom sketch, District Attorney Jason Schmidt presents his opening statement in the trial of Hadi Matar, iin Chautauqua County court, in Mayville, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, as Judge David Foley is seated on the bench. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

In this courtroom sketch, Public Defender Lynn Shaffer asks her client, Hadi Matar, left, to stand while giving her opening statement in his the trial iin Chautauqua County court, in Mayville, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Hadi Matar, right, charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack, speaks to his defense team in Chautauqua County court in Mayville, N.Y., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

FILE - Author Salman Rushdie poses for a portrait to promote his book "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder", at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Germany, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire while cooking, as thousands of Palestinians endure colder weather in makeshift housing.

The nylon tent in Yarmouk caught fire Thursday night while a meal was being prepared, a neighbor said. A hospital official said that two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday in Gaza.

The shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces, especially along the so-called Yellow Line that delineates areas under Israeli control.

On Friday, American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Over the past few weeks, cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, causing flooding, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing damaged buildings to collapse.

Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel’s military suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.

Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, preventing the population in Gaza from receiving them. Last month, the World Food Program said that there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire.

Palestinians have long called for mobile homes and caravans to be allowed in to protect them against living in impractical and worn out tents.

Jolie met with members of the Red Crescent on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients on Friday, according to Egyptian officials.

Her visit sought to raise support for the displaced and humanitarian workers in the crises in Gaza as well as in Sudan, Jolie's team said in a statement.

“What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must hold, and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can move quickly and consistently, at the volume required,” Jolie said about Gaza.

Reopening the crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza — especially the ill and wounded who could get specialized care unavailable in the territory — has been contentious. Israel has said that it will only allow Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter, until militants in Gaza return all the hostages they took in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza.

Israel also says Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt, meanwhile, says it wants the crossing immediately opened in both directions, so Palestinians in Egypt can enter Gaza. That’s a position rooted in Egypt’s vehement opposition to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in the country.

For more than two decades until 2022, Jolie was a special envoy to the U.N. refugee agency.

On Friday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern about Gaza's humanitarian situation.

The situation has been “compounded by the continued lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials," according to the joint statement.

The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,271, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians in its count. The Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

On Friday, two Palestinian men were killed in separate incidents by Israeli gunfire in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, a hospital official said. Israel's military said troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip killed a person who “crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them."

Meanwhile, Israel continues operating in the occupied West Bank.

On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoners media office said that Israel carried out numerous raids across the territory, including the major cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Nearly 50 people were detained, following the arrest of at least 50 other Palestinians on Thursday, most of those in the Ramallah area.

Israel's military said there were arrests made of people “involved in terrorist activity." Last week, a Palestinian attacker rammed his car into a man and then stabbed a young woman in northern Israel, killing both of them, police said.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that Israel has arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year, and 21,000 since the war began. The number arrested from Gaza isn't made public by Israel.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

CORRECTS BYLINE TO EMAD ELGEBALY - American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie, front left, greets Red Crecent workers during her visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emad Elgebaly)

Magdi Abu Al-Khair bids farewell to his mother Amal Abu Al-Khair at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, after she and her grandchild Saud were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie, front left, greets Red Crecent workers during her visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

The bodies of Amal Abu Al-Khair and her grandchild, Saud, are transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after they were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Magdi Abu Al-Khair bids farewell to his mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, after she and her grandchild, Saud, were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)