He was far from his family and the family of his beloved sultan. He told himself that he was still trusted, that home did not alter in his absence, but some days the distance felt unpassable and permanent, infinitely far from the palace and the body he was most responsible for."
-- Mahmoud Ezzedine (Part I, Chapter 6)

Importance: Even before Ezzedine has been sent to Cumberland, he misses Constantinople, his family, and the sultan, partly because he feels so out of place in England. He longs to return home where the comforting fixtures of his life are located and where he is an important person whose duty is to care for the leader of the entire empire. His homesickness in the early stages of the novel foreshadows the continual distress he will feel in later chapters at his ongoing separation from everyone and everything he loves.

I do not know if he lies or how one might...
-- Mahmoud Ezzedine (Part I, Chapter 7)