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Concept
Muslin
Summary
Muslin (ˈmʌzlᵻn) is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured.
Muslin of uncommonly delicate handspun yarn was handwoven in the Bengal region of South Asia and imported into Europe for much of the 17th and early 18th centuries.
In 2013, the traditional art of weaving Jamdani muslin in Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
In 1298 CE, Marco Polo described the cloth in his book The Travels. He said it was made in Mosul, Iraq. The 16th-century English traveller Ralph Fitch lauded the muslin he saw in Sonargaon. He visited India in 1583, described Sonargaon, "as a town ...... where there is the best and finest cloth made in all India". Abul Fazl wrote "the Sarkar of Sonargaon produces a species of muslin very fine and in great quantity". During the 17th and 18th centuries, Mughal Bengal emerged as the foremost muslin exporter in the world, with Mughal Dhaka as capital of the worldwide muslin trade.
It became highly popular in 18th-century France and eventually spread across much of the Western world. Dhaka muslin was first showcased in the UK at The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851.
Since all the processes were manual, manufacturing involved many artisans for yarn spinning and weaving activities, but the leading role lay with the material and weaving.
Ginning: For removing trash and cleaning and combing the fibers and making them parallel ready for spinning a boalee (upper jaw of a catfish) was used.
Spinning and weaving: For extra humidity they used to weave during the rainy season for elasticity in the yarns and to avoid breakages. The process was so sluggish that it could take over five months to weave one piece of muslin.
Muslins were originally made of cotton only. These were very thin, transparent, delicate and feather light breathable fabrics.
Official source
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