Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

274Demonic Texts and Textual DemonsSaeed). 73 She is opposed to the two male leaders, Mahound and Imam, alsoby being a charismatic leader from the uneducated masses; therefore her politicalstatus is different. She leads the villagers into a personal, not institutionalised,religious experience; her relationship to power is less domineering.74 The division, or the demonic conflict, however, is present here, as well.Ayesha’s pilgrimage, the Padyatra, is followed from the standpoint of MirzaSaeed, who is a secular man, and acts as a “demon of doubt” in the odyssey.He points out the weaknesses in Ayesha’s leadership and questions hermiracles. He perceives the inhumanity of Ayesha’s endeavour for transcendence,how her absolutism drives her followers to their deaths. Ayesha evenaccepts the stoning of a baby, because it was illegitimate, and therefore a“Devil’s child.” 75 She represents the pursuit after an ideal that is ready to sacrificeeverything else in order to be absolutely unbroken in faith.‘Why should we follow you,’ the Sarpanch asked, ‘after all the dying, thebaby, and all?’‘Because when the waters part, you will be saved. You will enter into theGlory of the Most High.’‘What waters?’ Mirza Saeed yelled. ‘How will they divide?’‘Follow me,’ Ayesha concluded, ‘and judge me by their parting.’His offer had contained an old question: What kind of idea are you? Andshe, in turn, had offered him an old answer, I was tempted, but am renewed;am uncompromising; absolute; pure. 76Mirza Saeed’s revolt has much desperation behind it: he is bound to thepilgrimage because his wife and Ayesha – the two women he loves – are takingit. For a secular man the acceptance of miracles would mean giving upone’s identity. As Mirza Saeed says: “It is the choice, then [...] between thedevil and the deep blue sea.” 77 The climaxing image of the religious followingtheir leader under the surface of the Arabian sea is a particularly striking imageof Mirza Saeed’s fears before the “leap of faith.” He is longing to lose hisself in the Other, but traditional religiosity is not an option for him; The SatanicVerses portrays collective and dogmatic religions as dangerous and alienpractices. The only variety of faith that is given a positive, identifying treatment,is the faith in love. As Mirza Saeed is finally dying, after losing his reasonsfor living, he has a vision of Ayesha; he is drowning in the sea because73 SV, 219-20. Her name evokes again the demonic beauty from H. Rider Haggard’sShe; see above, page 176n26. (The “powerful daimon,” daimôn megas, is Plato’s expression,from his Symposium [202d].)74 In his dreams Gibreel is the medium (as the archangel Gabriel) for all three prophets,and confronts their differences: “With Mahound, there is always a struggle; with theImam, slavery; but with this girl, there is nothing” (SV, 234). The sources for the revelationsare in every case in the prophet’s own self, but these selves are articulated differently.75SV, 496-97.76 SV, 500.77SV, 484.