Salman Rushdie on Tuesday came face to face with the man accused of nearly killing him, describing the attack in gruesome detail in court — where he took off his glasses to reveal his sightless right eye.
The famed author of “The Satanic Verses,” 77, recalled the “ferocious” look in the eyes of Hadi Matar, 27, when he rushed a stage in upstate New York in August 2022 and allegedly began stabbing Rushdie, who added he believes he would be dead if some good Samaritans hadn’t taken Matar down.
“I only saw him at the last minute,” Rushdie told jurors — as his emotional wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue in the gallery at the Chautauqua County Courthouse.
He said Matar “must have run up the steps and run across the stage at me.
“I was aware of someone wearing black clothes, or dark clothes and a black face mask,” said Rushdie, who was being interviewed at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York at the time.
“I got very struck by his eyes. They were dark and seemed very ferocious to me,” the author said, before the judge struck the comment from the official court record.
Rushdie vividly detailed the brutal injuries he suffered during the vicious attack, including being left blind in one eye.
“You can see that’s what’s left of it — there is no vision in the eye at all,” he said, taking off his glasses — which have a darkened lens over his destroyed right one — and showing the jury the horrific injury, which he described as “immensely painful.”
Rushdie said he thought Matar was using his fists on him initially, having not seen the weapon, but then quickly realized that he was being stabbed when he felt incredible pain and started screaming as blood gushed from his right eye.
“I saw a large quantity of blood pouring onto my clothes. He was hitting me repeatedly. Hitting and slashing,” Rushdie said.
“It was a stab wound in my eye and intensely painful, and after, that I was screaming because of the pain and I couldn’t see out the eye.
“I struggled to my feet to get away from him. At some point, I put up my right hand … and he struck that. … He severed all tendons of hands and most of the nerves,” Rushdie said, adding it is not repaired yet.
“I couldn’t stand up any more. I fell down.”
Rushdie estimated he was stabbed in total about 15 times throughout his body.
“It did not damage the heart, fortunately,” he told the court — sitting in the same room as his accused attacker for the first time since the assault.
Matar, who was born in America but is a dual Lebanese citizen, told The Post in a jailhouse interview days after the stabbing that he nearly killed Rushdie because the author is “someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems.”
Rushdie’s controversial novel “The Satanic Verses” has sparked outrage among some Muslim communities since it was published in 1988 for its depictions of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.
Rushdie said he was on the floor during the 2022 attack when interviewer Henry Reese — who also suffered serious injuries in the assault — and some members of the audience jumped into action and subdued Matar.
“And thanks to that, I survived,” he said.
“It occurred to me quite clearly that I was dying. That was my predominant thought.”
A doctor who was present told him to hold his legs in the air to stop the bleeding while someone cut open his clothes to view his wounds. He said he remained mostly conscious as he was loaded into a helicopter and flown to a trauma center, where he remained for 17 days.
Matar, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault, was flanked by two sheriff’s deputies during Rushdie’s testimony. He kept his head bowed, only occasionally looking up.
Earlier, the defendant had entered the courtroom and said, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as he walked past reporters. On Monday, he’s similarly said, “Free Palestine” as he walked in.
Rushdie estimated he is only about 75% to 80% recovered roughly 30 months after the attack.
Unable to use his right hand due to nerve damage, he said daily tasks like using the bathroom and brushing his teeth have become difficult.
He also deals with serious blood pressure issues he’d never had before the stabbing, he said.
