The chap­ter begins with Arthur arriv­ing at the British Embassy in Con­stan­tino­ple, locat­ed in the Pera dis­trict, designed to resem­ble Buck­ing­ham Palace. Exhaust­ed after his jour­ney, he eats rab­bit stew before set­tling into bed, lis­ten­ing to the sounds of the bustling city out­side. The fol­low­ing day, he meets the ambas­sador, a well-edu­cat­ed and aris­to­crat­ic man, in an opu­lent cham­ber filled with diverse art­work. Their con­ver­sa­tion is strained, with Arthur eager­ly ask­ing about his trav­el to Nin­eveh, only to learn that he must wait for a nec­es­sary fir­man, an offi­cial per­mit from the sul­tan, to begin exca­va­tions.

Arthur’s frus­tra­tion mounts as days turn into weeks with­out news of the fir­man. He attempts to nav­i­gate Ottoman bureau­cra­cy but strug­gles due to a lan­guage bar­ri­er and cul­tur­al mis­un­der­stand­ings. He feels like a fish out of water amid the embassy’s elite, reflect­ing on how dif­fer­ent the cus­toms and man­ners are com­pared to his own.

Dur­ing his time in Con­stan­tino­ple, Arthur has var­i­ous culi­nary expe­ri­ences, try­ing local dish­es that often upset his stom­ach, although he finds enjoy­ment in sweet desserts and cof­fee-house atmos­pheres. He delights in the city’s vibran­cy, often tak­ing strolls along the Bosporus, observ­ing the storks, dogs, and mul­ti­cul­tur­al crowds that pop­u­late the streets. He finds the absence of women strik­ing, wit­ness­ing glimpses of their lives with­in the con­fines of the harem.

While explor­ing the Grand Bazaar with a drago­man, Arthur immers­es him­self in the local cul­ture, fas­ci­nat­ed by the spe­cial­ized quar­ters with­in the mar­ket. He hap­pens upon a com­mo­tion involv­ing a Yazi­di man accused of dev­il-wor­ship. In a moment of com­pas­sion, he eras­es the chalk cir­cle drawn around the old man, earn­ing grate­ful words from him that res­onate with Arthur’s own quests and exis­ten­tial reflec­tions. As he leaves the bazaar with a piece of lapis lazuli, he pon­ders the man’s cryp­tic mes­sage about a riv­er flow­ing through him, con­tem­plat­ing his own rest­less heart and its con­nec­tion to the ancient epic tales that inspire his jour­ney .