The False Dawn
Before the real dawn, a pale cone of light rises in the east and fades again. In the Islamic world it was called the false dawn.
What was reported
In very dark places, an hour or so before sunrise in autumn, a faint, tilted cone of light can be seen rising from the eastern horizon. It looks like the dawn arriving early, then fades away before the true dawn begins.
In the Islamic world it was named the false dawn, and scholars carefully distinguished it from the true dawn because the time of the morning prayer depends on it. The Persian poet Omar Khayyam, of Nishapur, is remembered for a famous verse, in English translation, about the 'phantom of false morning'.
Explanations offered
The glow is the zodiacal light: sunlight scattered by a vast cloud of dust spread through the plane of the solar system. It's best seen from dark places at the times of year when the plane rises steeply from the horizon. In 2021, scientists working with the Juno spacecraft suggested that much of the dust may come from Mars.
- When
- Noted for over a thousand years
- Where
- Nishapur, Razavi Khorasan, Iran
- Witnesses
- Desert travellers, poets and astronomers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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