Which 1988 novel by Salman Rushdie was banned in many Islamic countries?

The 1988 novel by Salman Rushdie banned in many Islamic countries is The Satanic Verses.

Published in September 1988, the novel is a complex work of magical realism inspired partly by the life of Muhammad, migration, dreams, and cultural displacement. Some Muslim readers and authorities considered passages involving Islamic history and religious figures blasphemous, triggering protests, book burnings, and government bans.

India became the first country to prohibit the book's importation in October 1988. Other bans followed in countries including Pakistan, South Africa, Iran, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, and several others. In February 1989, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death, turning the controversy into an international political and free-expression crisis.

The wording “many Islamic countries” is a broad description rather than a claim that every Muslim-majority country banned the novel. The United Kingdom and United States, where the book was published, did not impose national bans, although protests and threats occurred there.