Mashru

What is Mashru?

Mashru is a woven cloth with two faces: silk on the outside, cotton against the skin. Weavers of the Indian subcontinent made it as a satin weave, so the surface sits smooth and slightly shiny, though it never glows the way pure silk does. The cloth is thickset and weighty, with a variegated, many-toned pattern on its face. It earned its keep as a practical silk: strong, able to take washing, and cheaper than pure silk. People used it for dresses of many kinds and for household goods. Muslim men across northern India and Pakistan favoured it, since their law set aside pure silk for women. Two named sorts survive in the record, gulbadan and sufi, and finer grades were prized for how well they washed.

Where does Mashru come from?

The cloth is taken to be an Indian innovation. Its earliest firm date is the sixteenth century, when the Ain-i-Akbari, a record of Mughal administration, listed it among silken goods. That same text explains why it mattered: an orthodox Muslim man was meant to keep to plain stuffs such as linen and pass over silk, velvet, brocade and fur. Cloth that mixed silk with cotton sidestepped the ban, and such blends spread widely through the empire once the Ain-i-Akbari was issued. Courtiers and nobles wore mashru in the Mughal period. The name itself carries the story: mashru comes from an Arabic root meaning permitted, while a Sanskrit cousin, misru, means mixed, a fair description of the fibre. A related cloth, kutnu, appeared in the Near East.

How is Mashru made?

Two layers make one cloth. The foundation is a thick cotton base, covered by a silken warp and weft so fine it is nearly single-stranded. On the loom, the cotton yarn is drawn down while the silk is brought up, so the finished cloth shows a silk surface with cotton behind it. The weave is warp-faced satin, which gives the smooth finish. The result is firm and heavy, closer to a working cloth than a whisper-light silk. It was hand-woven. Weavers graded their output: the superior material kept the name mashru, while thinner work was called sangi. The named sorts gulbadan and sufi each had their own character. One old trade note praised the cloth's upkeep: all mushroos wash well, the finer kinds best of all.

Colours, motifs and borders

The face of the cloth carries a variegated pattern, tonally varied rather than flat. Silk rides on top, so the surface takes a satin sheen, but the cotton behind dulls the shine, and the effect is quieter than pure silk. In the hand the cloth is stout and heavy, falling with weight rather than floating. No motifs or colours are named for it in the record; what survives is a sense of grading, with finer cloth set above coarser work.

How Mashru is worn

Mashru went into dresses of many sorts and into household items, rather than one fixed garment. In Mughal times it clothed courtiers and nobles. Its virtue was what it allowed: a man who kept the rule against pure silk could still wear cloth that looked and felt silken, because only the surface was silk while cotton rested next to the skin. Women faced no such bar and could wear the grandest silks if they chose. The sources record no single drape for it.

When Mashru is worn

At the Mughal court it served as dress for courtiers and nobles. Beyond the palace it was respectable everyday cloth for Muslim men across northern India and Pakistan, for whom pure silk next to the skin was held to be impious. The same blend worked for household goods. No festival use appears in the record; its place was lawful, comfortable dress.

Styles of Mashru

The record names two sorts, gulbadan and sufi, and splits quality by grade: superior cloth was classed as mashru proper, lesser material as sangi. Finer kinds were noted for washing well, a claim few silks could make. Beyond the subcontinent, a near relation called kutnu was woven in the Near East. A note on ikat velvet pieces identified as Indian says they resemble the mashru then woven in western India, right down to the foundation, and suggests that foundation was prepared specially for conservative Muslim buyers who avoided silk thread. Related cloths named alongside it include alacha and garbi.

Care and buying

The old trade note is plain: all mushroos wash well, and the finer kinds best of all, an unusual claim for a silk-faced cloth. Buyers of the day separated grades by name, taking mashru for the superior material and sangi for the lower. Beyond this the sources say little about upkeep. The hidden cotton backing was plainly part of what let the cloth stand up to washing.

What Mashru means

The cloth's meaning sits in its name. Mashru, from an Arabic root, means permitted, and permission was the whole point: Muslim men were barred from pure silk, so a fabric with a silk face and a cotton body let them dress well without breaking the rule. The Ain-i-Akbari records the world it moved in, and notes that Akbar was sent textiles signed by Giyatyad-Din Ali Naqshband, a mark of named makers at court. That the blend spread widely through the empire after the Ain-i-Akbari was issued shows how law and cloth shaped each other.

Questions people ask about Mashru

Good reading and sources

• Mashru on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data