Muslin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Muslin gauze" redirects here. For American English usage of "muslin", see Calico.
Not to be confused with Muslims.

A woman in fine Bengali muslin, "Muslim Lady Reclining" by Francesco Renaldi (1789)
Woman's muslin dress c. 1855
Saida 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 (

Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured.[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, Mughal Bengal 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]

In 2013, the traditional art of weaving Jamdani, a type of muslin, in Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.[13]

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.

History

In 1298 CE, Marco Polo described the cloth in his book The Travels. He said it was made in Mosul, Iraq.[14] The 16th-century English traveller Ralph Fitch lauded the muslin he saw in Sonargaon.[15] 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.[9][16]

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.[17]

Manufacturing process

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.[18]

  • 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.[19]

Characteristics

Thin

18th century Dhaka muslin

Muslins were originally made of cotton only. These were very thin, transparent, delicate and feather light breathable fabrics. There could be 1000–1800 yarns in warp and weigh 3.8 oz (110 g) for 1 yd × 10 yd (0.91 m × 9.14 m). Some varieties of muslin were so thin that they could even pass through the aperture of a lady finger-ring.[20][21][22]

Transparency

Gaius Petronius Arbiter (1st century AD Roman courtier and author of the Satyricon) described the transparent nature of the muslin cloth as below:[23]

Thy bride might as well clothe herself with a garment of the wind as stand forth publicly naked under her clouds of muslin.

— Petronius[24]

Poetic names

Certain delicate muslins were given poetic names such as Baft Hawa ("woven air"), Shabnam ("evening dew"), and āb-i-ravān ("flowing water"). The latter name refers to a fine and transparent variety of fine muslin from Dacca.[25] The fabric's characteristics are summed up in its name.[26][27]

Types

Muslin has several kinds of variations. Many of the below are mentioned in Ain-i-Akbari (16th-century detailed document)

More variations

Mull is another kind of muslin. It is a soft, thin, and semitransparent material. The name is derived from Hindi "mal" which means "soft". Swiss mull is a type of which is finished with stiffening agents.[40]

Decline under Company rule

During the period of Company rule, the East India Company imported British-produced cloth into the Indian subcontinent, but became unable to compete with the local muslin industry. The Company administration initiated several policies in an attempt to suppress the muslin industry, and muslin production subsequently experienced a period of decline. It has been alleged that in some instances Indian weavers were rounded up and their thumbs chopped off, although this has been refuted by historians as a misreading of a report by William Bolts from 1772.[41][42][43] The quality, finesse and production volume of Bengali muslin declined as a result of these policies, continuing when India transitioned from Company rule to British Crown control.[41][44]

Uses

Dressmaking and sewing

In Advantages of wearing Muslin Dresses! (1802), James Gillray satirically pointed out a hazard of untreated muslin: its flammability.

Because muslin is an inexpensive, unbleached cotton fabric available in different weights, it is often used as a backing or lining for quilts, and therefore can often be found in wide widths in the quilting sections of fabric stores.

When sewing clothing, a dressmaker may test the fit of a garment by using muslin fabric to make a test-model before cutting pieces from more expensive fabric to make the final product, thereby avoiding potential costly mistakes. In the United States, these test-models are themselves sometimes referred to as "muslins,” the process is called "making a muslin," and "muslin" has become the generic term for any test- or fitting garment, regardless of the fabric it is made from.

In Britain and Australia, the term for a test- or fitting garment used to be [45] Toile.[46] The word “toile,” from an Old French word for “cloth,” entered the English language around the 12th century. (Today, toile simply refers to any sheer fabric, which may be made, for example, from linen or cotton.)

The modern German term for a test- or fitting garment is Nesselmodell.[47]

Use in food production

Main article: Cheesecloth

Muslin can be used as a

filter
:

  • In a funnel when
    port
    to prevent sediment from entering the decanter
  • To separate liquid from mush (for example, to make apple juice: wash, chop, boil, mash, then filter by pouring the mush into a muslin bag suspended over a jug)
  • To retain a liquidy solid (for example, in home cheese-making, when the milk has curdled to a gel, pour into a muslin bag and squash between two saucers (upside down under a brick) to squeeze out the liquid whey from the cheese curd)

Muslin is the material for the traditional cloth wrapped around a Christmas pudding.

Muslin is the fabric wrapped around the items in barmbrack, a fruitcake traditionally eaten at Halloween in Ireland.

Muslin is a filter in traditional Fijian kava production.

Beekeepers use muslin to filter melted beeswax to clean it of particles and debris.

Set design and photography

Muslin is often the cloth of choice for theatre sets. It is used to mask the background of sets and to establish the mood or feel of different scenes. It receives paint well and, if treated properly, can be made translucent.

It also holds dyes well. It is often used to create nighttime scenes because when dyed, it often gets a wavy look with the color varying slightly, such that it resembles a night sky. Muslin

soft-covered flats
.

In video production, muslin is used as a cheap greenscreen or bluescreen, either pre-colored or painted with latex paint (diluted with water).

Muslin is the most common backdrop material used by photographers for formal portrait backgrounds. These backdrops are usually painted, most often with an abstract mottled pattern.

In the early days of silent film-making, and until the late 1910s, movie studios did not have the elaborate lights needed to illuminate indoor sets, so most interior scenes were sets built outdoors with large pieces of muslin hanging overhead to diffuse sunlight.

Medicine

first-aid
packet of 5m of "hydrophilic muslin", given to Italian soldiers in World War I

Surgeons use muslin

cerebrovascular neurosurgery to wrap around aneurysms or intracranial vessels at risk for bleeding.[48] The thought is that the gauze reinforces the artery and helps prevent rupture. It is often used for aneurysms that, due to their size or shape, cannot be microsurgically clipped or coiled.[49]

Recognition

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.[50] In 2020, it was given Geographical indication status as a product of Bangladesh due to efforts of the government of Bangladesh,[51] the fourth GI-certified product after Jamdani sarees, Hilsa fish, and Khirsapat mangoes.

Revival

Muslin saree was woven in Bangladesh by a group of researchers under a government project. The research team has woven six muslin sarees in 2020. It is expecting to launch the muslin saree in the market in the next two years.[52]

See also

References

  1. ^ https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/bangladesh-resurrects-precious-woven-air-dhaka-muslin/2574987
  2. ^ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/textile-hub-bangladesh-revives-muslin-the-forgotten-elite-fabric
  3. ^ muslin (noun), Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, March 2003, archived from the original on 10 August 2017, retrieved 17 March 2014
  4. ^ muslin (noun), Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
  5. ^ muslin, Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 4 May 2015, retrieved 23 June 2022
  6. ISBN 978-1-60901-535-0, archived
    from the original on 7 July 2023, retrieved 13 May 2016
  7. ^ muslin (noun), etymology, Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, March 2003, archived from the original on 10 August 2017, retrieved 17 March 2014
  8. OCLC 299379796
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-520-20507-9. Archived
    from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  10. ^ Karim, Abdul (2012). "Muslin". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  11. ^ "মঞ্জুরকৃত জিআই পণ্য". dpdt.portal.gov.bd. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  12. ^ "Intellectual Property India - Journal 182". Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Jamdani recognised as intangible cultural heritage by Unesco", The Daily Star, 5 December 2013, archived from the original on 6 December 2013, retrieved 4 December 2013
  14. ^ Polo, Marco. "The most noble and famous travels of Marco Polo, together with the travels of Nicoláo de' Conti". Translated by John Frampton, London, A. and C. Black, 1937, p.28.
  15. OCLC 299379796
    .
  16. ^ Karim, Abdul (2012). "Muslin". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  17. ^ Gorvett, Zaria. "The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make". www.bbc.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
  18. ^ A descriptive and historical account of the cotton manufacture of Dacca, in Bengal. John Mortimer. 1851.
  19. S2CID 166980808. Archived
    from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  20. ^ Watson, John Forbes (1867). The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India. Allen. p. 75.
  21. ^ Balfour, Edward (1885). The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, Commercial Industrial, and Scientific: Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures. Bernard Quaritch. p. 830.
  22. ^ Indian Journal of Economics. University of Allahabad, Department of Economics. 1998. p. 435.
  23. ^ "Legendary fabric". Deccan Herald. 14 January 2017. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  24. ^ Gorvett, Zaria. "The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make". Archived from the original on 10 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
  25. ^ Weibel, Adèle Coulin (1952). Two thousand years of textiles; the figured textiles of Europe and the Near East. Internet Archive. New York, Published for the Detroit Institute of Arts [by] Pantheon Books. p. 54.
  26. ^ Fairchild's dictionary of textiles. New York, Fairchild Publications. 1959. p. 4.
  27. ISBN 978-0-7190-6700-6
    .
  28. ^ Museum, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II (1979). Textiles and Costumes from the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum. Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust. pp. XII.
  29. ^ Khadi Gramodyog. Khadi & Village Industries Commission. 2001. p. 88.
  30. ^ Congress, Indian History (1967). Proceedings. Indian History Congress. p. 243.
  31. ISBN 978-1-317-01231-3
    .
  32. ISBN 978-81-7072-044-7
    .
  33. ^ Fairchild's dictionary of textiles. New York: Fairchild. 1959. p. 15 – via Internet Archive.
  34. ISBN 978-1-136-60331-0
    .
  35. ISBN 978-0-393-01703-8
    – via Internet Archive.
  36. ^ Sinha, Narendra Krishna (1961). The Economic History of Bengal from Plassey to the Permanent Settlement. Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay. p. 177.
  37. ^ Dey, Gouri (2015). "Textiles under Mughals" (PDF). Fashion and Designing under the Mughals (Akbar to Aurangzeb): A Historical Perspective (PhD). University of North Bengal. p. 87. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 January 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022. Cotton clothes: 1. Khasa per piece (than) – 3 rupiya to 15 muhr 2. Chautar per piece – 2 rupiya to 9 muhr 3. Malmal per piece – 4 rupiya 4. Tansukh per piece – 4 rupiya to 5 muhr
  38. ISBN 978-1-000-07920-3
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  39. ISBN 978-81-85579-56-6
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  40. ^ Thompson, Eliza Bailey (1922). Cotton and linen. New York: Ronald. p. 70 – via University of California Libraries.
  41. ^ a b Bolts, William (1772). Considerations on India affairs: particularly respecting the present state of Bengal and its dependencies. Printed for J. Almon. pp. 194–195.
  42. ISBN 0-678-06775-9
    .
  43. ISBN 978-90-04-08365-3
    .
  44. ISBN 978-1-4602-2893-7
    .
  45. ^ Oxford English Dictionary: "toile"; its earliest known use in this sense was recorded in 1561.
  46. ^ Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English ISBN 019 431 5339, 2000, page 1367
  47. ^ Guido Hofenbitzer: Maßschnitte und Passform – Schnittkonstruktion für Damenmode: Band 2 Europa-Lehrmittel; 2. Edition (5. Oktober 2016) ISBN 978-3808562444, Page 26
  48. PMID 1244428
    .
  49. S2CID 883414
    .
  50. ^ "Jamdani recognised as intangible cultural heritage by Unesco". The Daily Star. 5 December 2013. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  51. ^ "Muslin belongs to Bangladesh". Prothom Alo. Archived from the original on 2 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  52. ^ "Legendary Muslin revived again, Textile Today, 2 January 2021". Archived from the original on 2 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2022.

Further reading

External links

  • Media related to Muslin at Wikimedia Commons
  • The dictionary definition of muslin at Wiktionary
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