Anthony Jenkinson and the mystery of Aru Sultan - Nick Fielding

Our first Be inspired event in 2026. This series spotlights fascinating research on our Collections.

In the spring of 1560, a small ship docked in the Port of London having sailed from the north of Russia. On board was a young Central Asian woman called Aru Sultan, brought to England by merchant adventurer Anthony Jenkinson, who had come across her during his remarkable journey through Russia, down the Volga and across the Caspian Sea to Bokhara.

Within a few months Aru Sultan had become a lady in waiting to Queen Elizabeth and a fashion sensation, introducing the Elizabethan court to high boots and other innovations.

Who was this remarkable young woman? Was she, as some Kazakh historians now claim, a diplomat from a Central Asia khan, or a slave girl picked up by Jenkinson in the wake of Ivan the Terrible’s campaign against the Golden Horde?

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