Editing Cotton (section)

===Middle Ages===
====Eastern world====
[[Egypt]]ians grew and spun cotton in the first seven centuries of the Christian era.<ref name=International>{{cite book|title = The International Cotton Trade|author = Roche, Julian|publisher = Woodhead Publishing Ltd.|location = Cambridge, England|year = 1994|page = 5}}</ref>

Handheld roller [[cotton gin]]s had been used in India since the 6th century, and was then introduced to other countries from there.<ref name=LakGin>{{cite book|ref=Lakwete|author=Lakwete, Angela|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOMaGVnPfBcC|title=Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America|place=Baltimore|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8018-7394-2|pages=1–6|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529151903/https://books.google.com/books?id=uOMaGVnPfBcC|archive-date=29 May 2016}}</ref> Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power.<ref name=Baber1>Baber, Zaheer (1996). ''The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India''. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 57. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-2919-8}}.</ref>

The earliest clear illustrations of the [[spinning wheel]] come from the [[Muslim world|Islamic world]] in the eleventh century.<ref name=MIT>{{cite book | last = Pacey | first = Arnold | title = Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History | orig-date = 1990 | edition = First MIT Press paperback | year = 1991 | publisher = The MIT Press | location = Cambridge MA}}</ref> The earliest unambiguous reference to a spinning wheel in India is dated to 1350, suggesting that the spinning wheel was likely introduced from Iran to India during the [[Delhi Sultanate]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Pacey | first = Arnold | title = Technology in World Civilization: A Thousand-Year History | orig-date = 1990 | edition = First MIT Press paperback | year = 1991 | publisher = The MIT Press | location = Cambridge MA | pages = 23–24}}</ref>

====Europe====
[[File:Mandeville cotton.jpg|thumb|Cotton plants as imagined and drawn by [[John Mandeville]] in the 14th century]]
During the late medieval period, cotton became known as an imported fiber in northern Europe, without any knowledge of how it was derived, other than that it was a plant. Because [[Herodotus]] had written in his ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', Book III, 106, that in India trees grew in the wild producing wool, it was assumed that the plant was a tree, rather than a shrub. This aspect is retained in the name for cotton in several Germanic languages, such as German ''[[wikt:Baumwolle|Baumwolle]]'', which translates as "tree wool" (''Baum'' means "tree"; ''Wolle'' means "wool"). Noting its similarities to wool, people in the region could only imagine that cotton must be produced by plant-borne sheep. [[John Mandeville]], writing in 1350, stated as fact that "There grew there [India] a wonderful tree which bore tiny lambs on the endes of its branches. These branches were so pliable that they bent down to allow the lambs to feed when they are hungry." (See [[Vegetable Lamb of Tartary]].)[[File:Vegetable lamb (Lee, 1887).jpg|thumb|right|The [[Vegetable Lamb of Tartary]]]]
Cotton manufacture was introduced to Europe during the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]] [[Muslim conquest of Sicily|and Sicily]]. The knowledge of cotton weaving was spread to northern Italy in the 12th century, when [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Sicily was conquered by the Normans]], and consequently to the rest of Europe. The [[spinning wheel]], introduced to Europe circa 1350, improved the speed of cotton spinning.<ref name=Middle>{{cite web|title = Technology in the Middle Ages|author = Backer, Patricia|access-date = 12 June 2011|work = History of Technology|url = http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/middle.htm|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130508045210/http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/middle.htm|archive-date = 8 May 2013}}</ref> By the 15th century, [[Venice]], [[Antwerp]], and [[Haarlem]] were important ports for cotton trade, and the sale and transportation of cotton fabrics had become very profitable.<ref name=Facts>{{cite encyclopedia|title = cotton|author = Volti, Rudi|encyclopedia = The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society|year = 1999|url = http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE49\&iPin=ffests0220}}</ref>