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The history of the textile arts of Bangladesh dates back to the 1st century AD. According to the archaeological excavations, Bangladesh was once famous for its artistic textile production throughout the world. Over the years, several types of textiles evolved in the country, mostly by the indigenous handloom manufacturers.
The fine, transparent mulmul known as muslin in Europe manufactured by the weavers of Bengal was established as a commercial product almost 2000 years ago. Gangetic muslin is referred to by Greek and Roman writers. It is known from their writing that it was the most favored among the luxury goods imported from India. These were known by beautiful poetic names in Rome such as – nebula which means mist, vapor or cloud, and venti textiles, woven winds. Similar names are still used in Dhaka.
The most important commodities were fine cotton and, later, silk. The East India Company, already well established in Goa began to cast covetous glances at Bengal in the early 16th century. In 1536 they set up trading posts at Satgaon and Chittagong. In the mid – 17th century the East India company of London was permitted by the Mughal government to establish a few factories (trading posts) in Bengal.
The handloom textile industry employs a large section of the population. About 60 to 65 percent of the demand for textiles in Bangladesh is supplied by the handloom industry. [1]
Muslin is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, in Iraq, where it was first manufactured. In the 17th and 18th centuries Dacca in Bengal was regarded as producing the finest muslins.
Jamdani is a fine muslin textile produced for centuries in South Rupshi of Narayanganj district in Bangladesh on the bank of Shitalakhwa river. The historic production of jamdani was patronized by imperial warrants of the Mughal emperors. Under British colonialism, the Bengali jamdani and muslin industries rapidly declined due to colonial import policies favoring industrially manufactured textiles. In more recent years, the production of jamdani has witnessed a revival in Bangladesh. Jamdani is typically woven using a mixture of cotton and gold thread.
Kushtia district is a district in the Khulna administrative division of western Bangladesh. Kushtia has existed as a separate district since the partition of India. Prior to that, Kushtia was a part of Nadia district. Kushtia is the birthplace of many historical figures including Mir Mosharraf Hossain (1847–1912), Bagha Jatin (1879–1915) and Lalon (1774–1890). Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore lived his early life at Shelaidaha.
Manikganj is a district in central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division.
Bailey road is a well-known thoroughfare in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. It is a classic road in Dhaka. It runs through Shantinagar, connecting the Kakrail-Ramna road with the Siddheshwari junction. It is generally regarded as one of the classier areas of the city. The bailey road is considered as two distinct roads, one after another, they are the new baily road and the Baily road. The new Baily road is well recognised for its famous theatres, numerous boutiques, shops, schools, fast foods, restaurants and various hangout places. The other Baily road is reputable because of the officers club, Foreign Service academy and homes of ministers, officers and government officials. Bailey Road was featured in a song of the same name by Ayub Bachchu, lead singer of the popular rock band LRB. Bailey Road was officially renamed Natok Soroni, in recognition of the road's contributions to performing arts in the capital.
Bikrampur was a pargana situated 19 kilometres (12 mi) south of Dhaka, the modern capital city of Bangladesh. In the present day, it is known as Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. It is a historic region in Bengal and was a part of the Bhawal Estate.
Dacca or Dhaka is the capital and one of the oldest cities of Bangladesh. The history of Dhaka begins with the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka dating from the 7th century CE. The city area was ruled by the Buddhist and shaivite Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Sena dynasty in the 10th century CE. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkic and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate, followed by the Bengal Sultanate, before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. The city became proto-industrialised and declared capital of the Mughal Bengal. After Mughals, British ruled the region for 200 years until the independence of India. In 1947, Dhaka became the capital of the East Bengal province under the Dominion of Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, Dhaka became the capital of the new state.
The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley, where the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. The Bengali people are its dominant ethnolinguistic group. The region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian subcontinental empires. Bengal was considered to be the richest part of Islamic medieval India and during the era of the Bengal Sultanate it was described to be a major trading nation in the world, while during Mughal times, having triggered the proto-industrialization, its economy was worth 12% of global GDP. However, significant socio-economic inequalities existed during this period. As a part of the Bengal Presidency, it also hosted the region's most advanced political and cultural centers during British rule. Historically Feudalism has been widespread in the entire eastern Indian region. The feudal system flourished to a large extent under the British administration, which served as a means to exploit the Indian peasants by the British colonizers. This created a class of rich landlords in Bengal and a large population of poor peasants. It is noteworthy that a major portion of the Bengali intellectual community during the British era emerged from this wealthy class of landlords, as primarily they belonged to well educated families and got the economic opportunities to receive English education, often from abroad. The lower social classes remained in abject poverty and illiteracy. Thus, although the contribution of the Bengali intellectual community has been immense towards literature, science, politics and the Indian freedom movement, but still as it flourished under an exploitative imperial government, it mostly constituted of individuals belonging to the wealthy landlord families.
Hakim Habibur Rahman (23 March 1881 – 23 February 1947) was an Unani physician, litterateur, journalist, politician and chronicler in early 20th-century Dhaka, British India.
The Armenians in Bangladesh were ethnic Armenians who lived in what is now called Bangladesh. Their numbers have gradually diminished and there are now no Armenians in the country.
Shamsuddīn Aḥmad Shāh was a Sultan of Bengal and member of the Ganesha dynasty. He was the son and successor of Sultan Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah. After his father's death, he ascended the throne at the age of 14.
Nāsir ad-Dīn Naṣrat Shāh was the Sultan of Bengal from 1519 until his assassination in 1533. Continuing with his father's expansionist policies, he was the second ruler belonging to the Hussain Shahi dynasty. By 1526 however, he had to contend with the Mughal ascendency in the Battle of Ghaghra, and also suffered a reverse at the hands of the Ahom kingdom. The reigns of Alauddin Husain Shah and Nusrat Shah are generally regarded as the “golden age” of the Bengal sultanate.
The Bengal Subah, also referred to as Mughal Bengal, was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire and later an independent state under the Nawab of Bengal encompassing much of the Bengal region, which includes modern Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate, a major trading nation in the world, when the region was absorbed into one of the gunpowder empires. Bengal was the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent, and its proto-industrial economy showed signs of driving an Industrial revolution.
The Assam Bengal Railway (ABR) was one of the pioneering railway companies in British India. Headquartered in Chittagong, it functioned from 1892 to 1942.
The divisions of Bangladesh are divided into 64 districts or zila. The headquarters of a district is called a district seat. The districts are further subdivided into 492 sub-districts or upazila.
Tant sari is a traditional Bengali sari, originating from the Bengal region in the eastern part and usually used by Bengali women. Tant sari are woven from cotton threads and distinguished by its lightness and transparency. It is considered to be the most comfortable sari for the hot and humid climate in the Indian subcontinent.
The fauna of Bangladesh includes about 1,600 species of vertebrate fauna and about 1,000 species of invertebrate fauna based on incomplete records. The vertebrate fauna consists of roughly 22 species of amphibians, 708 species of fish, 126 -species of reptiles, 628 species of birds and 113 species of mammals. The invertebrate fauna includes about 30 species of aphids, 20 species of bees, 178 species of beetles, 135 species of flies, 400 species of spiders, 150 species of lepidopterans 52 species of decapods, 30 species of copepods, 2 species of starfish and some species of sand dollars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Bangladesh's wide variety of ecological conditions, encompassing the long sea coast, numerous rivers and their tributaries, lakes, haors, baors, ponds and other forms of wetlands, lowland evergreen forests of tropical nature, semi-evergreen forest, hill forests, moist deciduous forests, swamps, and flat lands with tall grasses, has ensured the vast diversity of species found in the country. However, the increasing population, unplanned urbanization and expansion of agriculture and industry have been significantly affecting the ecological structure of Bangladesh, leaving several species extinct and many others endangered.
Bangladesh–Portugal relations refer to the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Portugal. Bangladesh opened an embassy in Lisbon in 2012 and appointed its first ambassador to Portugal the following year. Portugal has a non resident ambassador in New Delhi, India.
The Old Dhakaites are an Indo-Aryan ethnocultural group viewed as the original inhabitants of Dhaka. They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaiya. Their history dates back to the Mughal period with the migration of cultivators and merchants to the city. The cultivators came to be known as Kutti and they speak Dhakaiya Kutti and the merchants came to be known as Khoshbas and speak Dhakaiya Urdu. There are sizeable populations in other parts of Bangladesh. The Dhakaiyas maintain a distinct identity in addition to their Bengali identity, due to cultural, linguistic, geographical and historical reasons. They have been described as a wealthy but very closed-off community; evidently being a minority in their own hometown. It is said that some people living in Greater Dhaka are even unaware of the existence of an Urdu-speaking non-Bihari minority community although their presence dates back centuries.
