One of the crafts and traditional jobs in which Karbala was famous for, is the textile industry with all its types such as weaving, knitting, and carpet manufacturing, as well the home-made rugs sewed by local products like wool, cotton, and silk, which are also available for making fabrics and clothing.
The forms of the products made then were very varied such as the women's festival dress or "Habari", which was very famous in the holy cities of Karbala and Kadhimiya, and has an indigenous significance through long-standing social traditions, while the men's summer uniforms or "Khachiya" has its own character due to the difficulty of its manufacturing and the long periods spent in making a single one of those thin, transparent cloaks that were also called "Bisht".
The textile industry dates back to the end of the eighteenth century AD, as some families in Karbala were well known for this profession, such as Al-Juraidi from "Bab Al-Salalma" district, while other families were famous for selling these products such as Al-Dehaima Abd al-Rasul Muhammad al-Asadi, Sayyid Abd Aoun al-Husseini, and Jawad al-Hajj Jadoua al-Khazraji.
Source:
Karbala's Civilizational Encyclopedia, the Historical Axis - Department of Modern and Contemporary History [Vol. 3, p. 331-334].
