Dhaka weaves a new tale with muslin, the long-lost royal fabric

DHAKA: Dhaka muslin, a cloth so gentle and superb that poets have described it as “woven air,” is poised for a rebirth in Bangladesh after years of analysis to revive long-lost manufacturing methods.

The fragile fabric derives its title from the town of Mosul, now in Iraq, the place it was first manufactured within the Center Ages.

The material grew to become widespread within the Indian subcontinent beneath Mughal rulers, and from the seventeenth century manufacturing was centered in Dhaka, the place weavers developed the material to its most interesting kind, quickly exporting it to the far corners of the world.

Dhaka muslin dominated the worldwide marketplace for 200 years. Worldwide royalty had been amongst those that favored the material till all of it however vanished within the early twentieth century, phased out by machine-made options and excessive import tariffs in Europe.

The advanced approach required to make the superb handwoven fabric, which has thread counts starting from a number of hundred to over 1,000, in addition to data of which cotton varieties had been appropriate for manufacturing, disappeared together with a era of weavers who deserted the craft.

As soon as the pleasure of the area, Dhaka muslin was forgotten for many years. 5 years in the past, nevertheless, researchers from the Bangladesh Handloom Board got down to revive the material. Nevertheless it was not a simple activity.

“We didn’t have any genuine samples at hand,” Mohammad Ayub Ali, who leads the undertaking, advised Arab Information.

“However we didn’t surrender. All of us nurtured a agency dedication in thoughts to revive the key.”

Ali’s group traveled to India, Egypt and the UK to seek out authentic samples of the historic material, and ultimately relied on a model discovered within the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

To find out the cotton species utilized by the outdated weavers of Dhaka, researchers turned to “Species Plantarum,” the groundbreaking guide printed by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1753, which listed each species of plant recognized on the time.

The plant was considered Phuti carpus, which researchers feared was now extinct.

“We ready a morphological sketch of Phuti carpus and searched throughout the nation to seek out if any pattern of this cotton nonetheless existed,” Ali mentioned. “Thirty-nine species of cotton samples had been collected on this course of.”

DNA testing, which matched the samples with muslin thread from the London museum, discovered that one plant, collected within the Kapasia area of Gazipur district, north of Dhaka, was nearly 100% suitable.

To put it aside from extinction, the plant is now grown on experimental farms.

Prof. Mohammad Monzur Hossain, a College of Rajshahi botanist who led the seek for Phuti carpus, mentioned that the plant has options not present in different species.

“The fiber of this cotton has a excessive tensile power in contrast with different cottons. And these fibers are brief in size, which is handy for hand spinning,” he advised Arab Information. “The muslin produced from Phuti carpus was so skinny and clear that it was referred to as ‘woven air.’”

The “woven air” metaphor originated from classical Persian poetry — as did “flowing water,” “night dew” and different phrases. To carry these descriptions to life, nevertheless, correct expertise and methods had been additionally important.

Weavers collaborating within the undertaking had been educated for over a yr to make use of conventional picket spinning wheels and hand-drawn looms to make materials with thread counts many instances greater than what they had been used to.

Greater thread counts — the variety of crisscrossed threads per sq. inch — make supplies softer and have a tendency to put on higher over time. The goal was 500, however to start with the artisans couldn’t transcend 80.

Mohammad Rubel Mia learnt the craft as a toddler greater than 20 years in the past and was accustomed to weaving delicate saris with thread counts round 100, but it surely took him some time to be taught the muslin approach.

“Initially, it was not simple to take care of this nearly microscopic thread,” he mentioned. “We failed repeatedly.”

For Mohsena Akter, one other employee on the Bangladesh Handloom Board’s Dhakai muslin undertaking facility in Narayanganj, southwest of Dhaka, it’s the most troublesome activity in her life.

The material is so superb that the fingers that weave it should at all times be gentle.

“If our fingers get dry or turn into arduous, we are able to’t take care of the fragile threads of muslin,” she mentioned. “There is no such thing as a time to lose focus, even for a fraction of a second, and it calls for the best degree of perseverance.”

Fifteen spinners work for the Dhakai muslin undertaking. It takes them 150 days to supply sufficient thread for only one piece of a muslin sari.

As they’re making ready to enter the market, the undertaking lead, Ali, mentioned one muslin sari would value an estimated $7,000 to $17,000, given the labor it takes to make it.

Hopes are excessive that the reborn historic material will probably be welcomed by the world’s trend business after an absence of virtually 100 years.

“I imagine it’ll additionally assist in branding Bangladesh because the most interesting cloth-producing nation,” Ali mentioned. “We’re contemplating taking in numerous gala’s internationally.”