Muslin is defined as “a cotton fabric made in various degree of fineness and often printed, woven, or embroidered in patterns, especially a cotton fabric of plain weave, used for sheets and for a variety of other purposes.” The origin of the word “Muslin” is ambiguous and often debated. Since it isn’t an actual word in Bengali, Sanskrit or Persian, it is presumed that it was a European name given to the fabric. Some say that the name is derived from the city name Mosul, Iraq, a historic trade center, while others say it referred to Musulipattam, the headquarters for European trade in South India.
Muslin is also mentioned in historic documentation of trade routes. In Marco Polo’s documentation of his 1293 trade-fueled travels titled The Travels, which is also sometimes called The Travels of Marco Polo, he mentions the fabric and its trade value. Muslin was also mentioned in Ptolemy’s Geography, a book detailing the Roman Empire’s knowledge of world geography and trade, as well as The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a book written in Greek delineating trade routes and navigation information.
[https://savageuniversal.com/blog/history-of-muslin/]
