MUSLIN WAS THE attire of kings and queens, a fabled fabric that was the pinnacle of European fashion in the 18th and 19th centuries. Originally called “mul-mul”, it was named by Marco Polo after the large cotton trade in the town of Mosul in Iraq.

Rare, delicate, fine and often described as “woven air”, muslin was the most sought-after textile and at its height was reaching all corners of the globe.

During the second and third centuries, India’s fine cotton was known as “Gangetic Muslin” and treated as a tribute, handed over from one royal family to another, forging friendships and cementing alliances. With the Muslim conquest of Bengal in the 12th century, trade and specifically textiles received a large boost. After the arrival of the Portuguese in the late 15th century, a small amount of Indian textiles started to travel directly to Europe, and this rapidly increased after the Dutch and the British joined in the Indian Ocean trade from early 17th century.

Muslin travelled the earth, bringing prosperity to its traders, specially the East India Company, 75 per cent of whose wealth would at one time come from this single item. In the 18th century Bengal’s textiles grew from 16 per cent to 55 per cent of the EIC trade and India was contributing an astonishing 25 per cent of the world economy, with England at less than 2 per cent. But the muslin industry was extinguished by a system of exploitative regulations brought in by the British rulers and a wave of new technology that saw the domestic cotton industry replaced by their machine-made fabrics.

By 1880, the lustre of Bengal’s muslin’s had faded and muslin was allowed to die.

Today muslin’s unique cotton plant, the phuti karpas which grew on the banks of the Meghna and its tributaries, is believed to be extinct.

The unique yarn is not spun and the weaving techniques used on jamdani (a last surviving variety of muslin) are all that is left of a lost art, even though coarser threads are used now in preference to the fine ones of the past.

Sadly, there are few credible records on muslin penned by Bangladeshis and no appropriate samples of its finery in the country’s national museums. Its story is written by outsiders and the best examples of its historic products are kept in museums abroad.

Over the past two years, Drik has extensively researched the topic with the assistance of curators, weavers and artisans both internationally and at home. Their efforts will culminate in a public exhibition that opens tomorrow at the Bangladesh National Museum.

Besides original artefacts of muslin, a photo book, documentary film and discussion sessions will also be launched. Muslin items of high thread count, 300 and above, will be on display.

The goal is to inspire the revival of a new-age muslin unique to Bangladesh and bring pride and recognition to its true heroes, the craftspeople.

After all, large volumes of fine cotton cloth are shipped from India, Turkey, the US and China to countries in Europe and Japan using the same brand name. Why shouldn’t Bangladesh profit?