Last week we toured the Middle East and North Africa and saw all the textiles named after locales of that area. India became a major source of textiles in the 17th century, and was an important source for fabric for the next 200 years.  Not surprisingly, many fabrics are named after places in India. I’m sure that in many cases the naming process went like this: European trader (pantomimes “What do you call that fabric?”) Local “It is made in Kozhikode” European “Ah, we will call it Calico” Local “Whatever, you are dumb” Notable examples are: Kashmir, which (of course) gave us cashmere from the wonderful goats that live in the mountains around the Vale of Kashmir. Machilipatnam in Eastern India was known as Maisolos and Masalia to the Romans, and (according to one theory at least, see the fabric tour of the middle east for the other) from these names comes the word muslin. Kozhikode, Kerala, India was known as Calicut, and gives us calico. (note, Calicut is not the same city as Calcutta, …