← Explore on the interactive map
Bengal Muslin Weaving
Highly specialized hand-weaving of muslin in the Bengal Delta in the late 16th century, famed for fine yarn, split-warp weaving, and wet spinning, ex…
Timeline
- c. 1520–1580Sonargaon · BengalFarmers and weavers of the Bengal Delta used local short-staple cotton, spun through multiple stages and wet-spun, to weave extremely thin plain cloth via split-warp techniques; varieties were named by yarn fineness and shipped overland and by sea to Central Asian and Southeast Asian markets.
- 1591Lower Hooghly River · Hooghly RiverAfter Mughal administrative integration of Bengal in the 1590s, muslin was regulated and taxed as a high-value tribute and export commodity; Portuguese and Armenian merchants carried Bengal muslin through ports such as Goa and Muscat into the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean, and "Dhaka muslin" became renowned across Eurasia.
- c. 1595–1610Dhaka · BengalWeaver communities formed guild-like divisions of labor by yarn count and pattern; the finest muslin required specific seasonal humidity and spinning skill, and European travelers and merchants described it as mist-thin, with text legible through the cloth, sustaining demand for Bengal textiles into the 17th century.
Sources
- The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present — Kenneth Pomeranz & Steven Topik (1999)
- The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume I — Tapan Raychaudhuri & Irfan Habib (eds.) (1982)