Four years after being stabbed on an amphitheater stage, author Salman Rushdie came face to face with his convicted attacker in a federal courtroom Thursday, recounting for jurors a second time the ambush that nearly claimed his life.

The Booker Prize–winning novelist described feeling what he initially mistook for a punch beneath his chin, followed by the sensation of blood streaming from his neck.

"I was on the stage, lying down, with an enormous pool of blood all around me," Rushdie testified. "It was an enormous and expansive lake of blood."

A federal jury in Buffalo watched intently as Rushdie spoke — at one point removing his glasses to reveal his right eye, now permanently sightless — during the terrorism trial of Hadi Matar, who has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges against him.

Matar was previously convicted on a state-level attempted murder charge for the 2022 attack, which took place at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York, where Rushdie was about to deliver a talk on threats facing writers and artists. Federal prosecutors argue Matar was acting on precisely such a threat: the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, calling for Rushdie's death over his novel "The Satanic Verses."

"I can't say what his ambitions or his aim was, but the wounds were dispersed across my body," Rushdie told the court.

Rushdie, 79, remained composed and direct during slightly more than an hour of testimony. He detailed the full extent of the assault — which blinded his right eye, damaged his liver, temporarily paralyzed his left hand, and required him to be placed on a ventilator — as well as his prolonged recovery and lasting injuries.

"The knife was a millimeter from my brain," Rushdie said.

Matar climbed onto the stage, approached the author from behind, and slashed him 15 times as the audience at the Chautauqua Institution looked on in shock. Spectators and Henry Reese, another speaker at the event, rushed to assist Rushdie and subdue Matar, who was arrested by law enforcement officers assigned to provide security. Rushdie has previously described the stabbing and his recovery during Matar's state trial, in a memoir, and in interviews with The Associated Press and other media outlets.

As Rushdie testified, Matar, 28, kept his gaze lowered at the defense table, occasionally resting his chin on his hand or turning to confer with his attorney. He glanced toward the author only as Rushdie exited the courtroom. The writer, for his part, looked at Matar only briefly, if at all.

The defense has contended that prosecutors cannot establish Matar's intent or state of mind at the time of the attack — an essential element of their assertion that the stabbing constituted an act of terrorism motivated by allegiance to Iran's government and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. Matar, currently serving a 25-year state prison sentence, faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of federal charges that include engaging in an act of transnational terrorism. The federal prosecution is notable because it seeks to classify a lone-wolf assault on U.S. soil as an act of transnational terrorism by tying it to foreign-designated entities, even though prosecutors have acknowledged there is no evidence Matar coordinated directly with any overseas organization.

When defense attorney Nathaniel Barone asked whether Rushdie believed the defendant had connections to terrorism, the author replied: "I had no knowledge, but I had my suspicions."

Khomeini issued the fatwa — a religious edict — in 1989, calling for Rushdie to be killed over "The Satanic Verses," which contains a dream sequence involving Islam's Prophet Muhammad that some Muslims deemed blasphemous. The novel triggered frequently violent protests against Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim family, and the fatwa forced him into hiding for years. Over the years, the decree was linked to attacks on others connected to the novel's publication: Rushdie's Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death in 1991, and his Italian translator, Ettore Capriolo, was stabbed and wounded the same year. The novel's Norwegian publisher, William Nygaard, was shot and wounded outside his home in 1993. Rushdie gradually resumed public life after the Iranian government distanced itself from the order in 1998, although the fatwa was never formally rescinded.

"For two decades or more, I led a public life without a hint of trouble," Rushdie testified Thursday.

Barone pressed Rushdie repeatedly on whether he had anticipated backlash from the book.

"Probably, but I don't believe the book to be on trial here. I believe someone else is on trial," Rushdie responded. At Barone's request, the judge struck the remark from the official court transcript.

Prosecutors have asserted that Matar was partly motivated by remarks made in 2006 by the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah regarding Rushdie and the fatwa. Matar, who was born in the United States, also holds Lebanese citizenship. His mother has said that a 2018 trip to Lebanon — where Hezbollah is headquartered — left him withdrawn and moody.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Lynch stated in his opening remarks Wednesday that Matar began researching Rushdie in 2020 and eventually wrote to himself: "We need to kill him ASAP." Lynch said Matar framed the planned killing as part of what he considered a jihad, or holy war.

Matar's New Jersey bedroom and electronic devices contained photographs and other materials demonstrating his admiration for Hezbollah, Lynch said. Matar also carried a counterfeit driver's license bearing a name similar to that of a Hezbollah figure. The U.S. government designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

The defense has argued that the government is asking jurors "to connect the dots" in a case devoid of direct evidence regarding Matar's thinking on the day of the attack. In what appeared to be an effort to examine how prominently the fatwa figured in security considerations by August 12, 2022, the defense has also questioned certain witnesses about the relatively limited security presence around Rushdie that day. A state trooper and a sheriff's deputy had been assigned to the event. The attack prompted literary organizations and free-expression groups including PEN America to call for strengthened security measures for authors and public speakers at risk of ideologically motivated violence.

Matar declined to testify at his state court trial but may choose to do so at the federal proceeding, Barone said outside court Thursday.

Rushdie was born in India, raised in Britain, and is now a U.S. citizen. He received the Booker Prize in 1981 for "Midnight's Children." His most recent publication is "The Eleventh Hour," a collection of short stories and novellas released last year.

Iran's government denied any involvement in the 2022 stabbing, though the Foreign Ministry's then-spokesperson suggested Rushdie had invited trouble by insulting Islam. Hezbollah's Nasrallah made no public comment on the attack.

Peltz reported from New York. (Fortune)