A woman in fine Bengali muslin, "Muslim Lady Reclining" by Francesco Renaldi (1789)Woman's muslin dress c. 1855Saida Muna Tasneem, The high commissioner of Bangladesh to the United Kingdom in a pastel green muslin Sari. The Bangladesh government declared official revival of fine Dhaka Muslin on April 2022.[1][2]
Muslin (/ˈmʌzlɪn/) is a cottonfabric of plain weave.[3] It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting.[4] It is commonly believed that it gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, however, originally it comes from Dhaki.[5][6][7]
The 16th-century English traveller Ralph Fitch lauded the muslin he saw in Sonargaon (in modern day Narayanganj District, Bangladesh).[8] 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, MughalBengal emerged as the foremost muslin exporter in the world, with Mughal Dhaka as capital of the worldwide muslin trade.[9][10]Dhakai Muslin was recognized as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of Bangladesh in 2018[11] and Banglar Muslin was recognized as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of the Indian state of West Bengal in 2024.[12]
Dhakai Muslin from the project "Reviving the Technology of Muslin Golden Heritage of Bangladesh" by "Bangladesh Handloom Board (BHB)" under the Ministry of Textiles and Jute of Bangladesh.
^muslin (noun), etymology, Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, March 2003, archived from the original on 10 August 2017, retrieved 17 March 2014
^Shamim, Shahid Hussain; Selim, Lala Rukh (2007). "Handloom Textiles". In Selim, Lala Rukh (ed.). Art and Crafts. Cultural survey of Bangladesh series. Vol. 8. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. p. 552. OCLC299379796.