Muslin also mousseline or Malmal, is a cotton fabric of plain weave.

It is
made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse
sheeting. Muslins were imported into Europe from the Bengal region,
specifically from the central areas of current day Bangladesh, during much
of the 17th and 18th centuries and were later manufactured in Scotland and
England. While English-speakers call it muslin because Europeans
believed it originated in the Iraqi city of Mosul, its origins are now thought to
have been farther east — in particular Dhaka, the capital of what is
now Bangladesh. Dhaka’s jamdani muslin, with its distinctive patterns
woven in layer by layer, was one of the Mughal Empire’s most prestigious
and lucrative exports. Early muslin was handwoven of uncommonly
delicate handspun yarn.

Muslin from French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo

‘Mosul’ (Mosul, Iraq, where European traders are said to have first
encountered the cloth). Although this view has the fabric named after the
city where Europeans first encountered it (Mosul), the fabric is believed to
have originated in Dhaka, the capital of present-day Bangladesh.

In the prehistoric period, a mother goddess figurine from Indus Valley

Civilisation appears to be draped in a very thin tight tunic top compared to
her skirt which exposes her bosoms which maybe a cloth-like
muslin.[6] Muslin is depicted frequently in terracotta figurines as early as
2nd century BCE in Chandraketugarh, an archaeological site in modern-
day West Bengal, India. In the fifth century Sigiriya painting depicts royal
females drapped in muslin. In the 9th century, an Arab merchant named
Sulaiman made note of the material's origin in Bengal (known as Ruhmi in
Arabic). Bengali muslin was traded throughout the Muslim world, from the
Middle East to Southeast Asia. In many Islamic regions, such as in Central
Asia, the cloth was named Daka, after the city of Dhaka.

In the prehistoric period, a mother goddess figurine from Indus Valley

Civilisation appears to be draped in a very thin tight tunic top compared to
her skirt which exposes her bosoms which maybe a cloth-like
muslin.[6] Muslin is depicted frequently in terracotta figurines as early as
2nd century BCE in Chandraketugarh, an archaeological site in modern-
day West Bengal, India. In the fifth century Sigiriya painting depicts royal
females drapped in muslin. In the 9th century, an Arab merchant named
Sulaiman made note of the material's origin in Bengal (known as Ruhmi in
Arabic). Bengali muslin was traded throughout the Muslim world, from the
Middle East to Southeast Asia. In many Islamic regions, such as in Central
Asia, the cloth was named Daka, after the city of Dhaka.

In 1298 CE, Marco Polo described the cloth in his book The Travels. He
said it was made in Mosul, Iraq. The 16th-century English traveler Ralph
Fitch lauded the muslin he saw in Sonargaon. 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. It
became highly popular in 18th-century France and eventually spread
across much of the Western world.

Under British rule, the British East India company could not compete with
local muslin with their own export of cloth to the Indian subcontinent. The
colonial government favored imports of British textiles. Colonial authorities
attempted to suppress the local weaving culture. Muslin production greatly
declined and the knowledge of weaving was nearly eradicated. It is alleged
that in some instances the weavers were rounded up and their thumbs
chopped off, although this has been refuted as an alleged misreading of a
report from 1772. The Bengali muslin industry was suppressed by various
colonial policies. As a result, the quality of muslin suffered and the finesse
of the cloth was lost.

There have been various attempts at reviving the muslin industry in modern
Bangladesh. In the present day, many different types of muslins are
produced in many different places, including Dhaka.
The word muslin is also used colloquially. In the United Kingdom, many
sheer cotton fabrics are called muslin, while in the United States, muslin
sometimes refers to a firm cloth for everyday use, which in the UK and
Australia is known as calico.

Uses

Dress-making and sewing

When sewing clothing, a dressmaker may test the fit of a garment, using an
inexpensive muslin fabric before cutting pieces from expensive fabric,
thereby avoiding potential costly mistakes. This garment is often called a
"muslin," and the process is called "making a muslin." In this context,
"muslin" has become the generic term for a test or fitting garment,
regardless of what it is made from.
Muslin is also often used as a backing or lining for quilts, and thus can
often be found in wide widths in the quilting sections of fabric stores.

Shellac polishing
Muslin is used as a French polishing pad.

Culinary
Muslin can be used as a filter:

 In a funnel when decanting fine wine or 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 used when making traditional Fijian Kava as a filter.
Beekeepers use muslin to filter melted beeswax to clean it of particles and
debris.

Theater and photography

Muslin is often the cloth of choice for theater 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 shrinks after it is painted or sprayed
with water, which is desirable in some common techniques such as soft-
covered flats.
In video production as well, muslin is used as a cheap greenscreen or
bluescreen, either pre-colored or painted with latex paint (diluted with
water). It is commonly used as a background for the chroma key technique.
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 up 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
Surgeons use muslin gauze in cerebrovascular neurosurgery to wrap
around aneurysms or intracranial vessels at risk for bleeding.[18] 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.

Early aviation
The Wright Brothers, in search of a light and strong covering for their
gliders and the 1903 Wright Flyer (the first heavier-than-air powered
aircraft), selected Pride of the West muslin as a covering for wings and
control surfaces. A large piece of the fabric used on the original Wright
Flyer (1903) was passed down to Wright descendants. The fabric was
made available to The Wright Experience (reproduction of the Wright
gliders and Flyer and reenactment of the first flight on its 100th
anniversary) for examination as it was no longer commercially available a
century after its use by the Wrights. To create an authentic modern
reproduction of the original fabric, three different companies were needed
which produced the thread, the weaving, and the finishing).
Muslin trade in Bengal
Muslin, a cotton fabric of plain weave, was hand woven in the region
around Dhaka, Bengal (now Bangladesh), and exported to Europe, the
Middle East, and other markets, for much of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Origins
Bengal has manufactured textiles for many centuries, as recorded in
ancient hand-written and printed documents. The Periplus of the
Erythraean Sea mentions Arab and Greek merchants trading between India
and the Red Sea port of Aduli (in present-day
Eritrea), Egypt and Ethiopia in the second century CE. Cloths including
muslin were exchanged for ivory, tortoiseshell and rhinoceros-horn at that
time. Muslin was traded from Barygaza – an ancient port of India located
in Gujarat – to different parts of Indian subcontinent before European
merchants came to India.
The Romans prized muslin highly, using bullion and gold coins to buy the
material from Deccan and South India. They introduced muslin into Europe,
and eventually it became very popular. A Chinese voyager, Ma Huan,
wrote about five or six varieties of fine cloths after visiting Bengal in the
early fifteenth century; he mentions that Bengal muslin was highly priced
in China at that time.
Mughal era
Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a center of the worldwide
muslin, silk and pearl trades. During the Mughal era, the most important
center of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of
Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such
as Central Asia. Bengal also exported cotton and silk textiles to markets
such as Europe, Indonesia and Japan. Bengal produced more than 50% of
textiles and around 80% of silks imported by the Dutch from Asia, for
example

Sixteenth century
In the early sixteenth century, a Portuguese apothecary named Tomes
Pires mentioned that Bengal muslins were traded to Thailand and
China. Bengali muslin was also traded throughout the Muslim world, from
the Middle East to Southeast Asia. By 1580, some Portuguese traders
settled at Dhaka and Sripur, from where they started exporting muslin,
cotton and silk goods to Europe and Southeast Asia.
During Ottoman rule from the sixteenth century onwards, large quantities of
muslin was exported to the Middle East. Muslin turbans were favoured by
the Ottomans. In the sixteenth century, Portuguese started trading textiles
from the Indian subcontinent through the Persian Gulf including high quality
of muslins. In the seventeenth century, the Portuguese trade declined.
Seventeenth century
In the early seventeenth century, British and Dutch merchants arrived at
the Indian Subcontinent sailing via the Red Sea. At the same
time, Armenian merchants from Iran came to the Indian
subcontinent travelling on land through Qandahar and Isfahan. They traded
textile goods including muslin from Bengal to Aleppo of Syria. In an official
inventory of Istanbul market dated from 1640, 20 types of muslins were
found and the highest value found there is 1600 silver pence. As the
business expanded, European companies became interested in founding
their own factories in Dhaka. The Dutch made their factory in Dhaka in
1663, the British in 1669 and the French in 1682.
Eighteenth century
The Ostend Company came to Bengal at the beginning of the eighteenth
century. They purchased textiles through agents and their own officials.
When they found the business very profitable, they also made settlements
in Dhaka.
Available statistics show that in 1747 the trade of Dhaka cotton goods
(primarily Muslin), including local trade valued twenty-eight and a half lakh
rupees.

Decline
Bengal was conquered by the British East India Company after the Battle of
Plassey in 1757 and the British Bengal Presidency was founded in 1765.
British colonization forced open the Bengali market to British goods, while
at the same time Britain implemented protectionist policies such as bans
and high tariffs that restricted Bengali imports to Britain. Raw cotton was
also imported without taxes or tariffs to British factories, which used them to
manufacture textiles, many of which were exported back to Bengal. British
economic policies led to deindustrialization in Bengal. British colonization
was also followed by the Great Bengal famine of 1770, which killed a third
of the Bengali population.
From 1787 to 1788, Dhaka suffered from severe natural calamities -
especially heavy rainfall - and famine broke out. After the disaster, more
emphasis was given on agriculture to reduce the effects of the famine. Tax
was revoked on the exportation of grains. So, people became more
interested in agricultural works than weaving as the wages of labourers and
other people working in agriculture suddenly rose.
From 1782 to 1787 the industrial revolution began in Britain, and fine cotton
was produced locally. During British colonial rule, the muslin industry
declined due to various colonial policies, which supported imports of
industrially manufactured textiles from Britain. A heavy duty of 75 percent
was imposed on export of cotton from Bengal. These measures ultimately
lead to the decline of muslin trade in Bengal.
In 1811, Bengal was still a major exporter of cotton cloth to
the Americas and the Indian Ocean. However, Bengali exports declined
over the course of the early 19th century, as British imports to Bengal
increased, from 25% in 1811 to 93% in 1840.