From its inception, when the United States had just won its independence, The Times has been committed to overseas reporting. It has continued this commitment through the succeeding 222 years.

At the end of the 18th century, when The Times was an infant, its readership was the small political and economic elite in and around London, an outward-looking city that was then overtaking Peking as the world’s largest. These were the people at the centre of a dynamic global empire whose ambitions and finances depended upon accurate news from near and far delivered as quickly as possible in an age when sail and horse were still the principal means by which words travelled. Thus, in 1798, readers of The Times discovered that Napoleon Bonaparte had invaded Egypt and swept aside the fearsome Mamelukes in front of the Pyramids — and later that his fleet had been defeated at the Battle of the Nile by a squadron led by Horatio Nelson.

During the 19th century, the paper relied increasingly on permanent foreign correspondents with an intimate knowledge of their region and of those shaping its destiny. With the power of the Ottoman Empire ebbing and “The Eastern Question” a seemingly unending preoccupation of political discourse, first Istanbul and then Cairo became critically important postings for Times correspondents.

Few Europeans were better known in the Cairo of the 1880s than Charles Moberly Bell, the Times correspondent who had been reporting from the city since 1867. His coverage of Arabi Pasha’s revolt and the bombardment of Alexandria 15 years later became famous examples of the reporter’s craft. When Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself Mahdi, stirring Sudan into revolt and preparing to encircle Khartoum, the only journalist cabling reports from the beleaguered city was The Times’s young war reporter, Frank le Poer Power. He even assumed the responsibilities of acting British Consul in December, 1883, writing to his mother: “The people here have a very high opinion of the power of The Times. They say that ‘it was not Europe, but The Times deposed Pasha,’ (and in this they are au fond right) and ‘If this paper can change one Khedive, why not another?’ ”

As for the Khedive, he wanted to know why he was able to read the latest news from Khartoum in The Times, sent out to him from London, three days before his own Governor-General there could telegraph reports to him. However, by September 1884 Khartoum was cut off and Power had increasing difficulty conveying the news. Trying to get a report out, he was in a party whose boat ran aground and he was murdered.

The dangers have scarcely diminished in more recent times. The Times has continued to report from the front line throughout the Middle East’s tumultuous 20th century. In the 1920s, reports on the creation of the region’s new states were only one feature of the paper’s expanding coverage. The Times was also the most influential of the forums where those hoping to shape the Middle East’s destiny argued their case. T. E. Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — was just one of those whose advocacy (increasingly against British government policy in the region) created waves when it was published in the paper.

The past 60 years, with the birth of Israel and the fate of the Palestinians, the rise of Arab nationalism, the importance of oil, cultural and economic change and, since 2003, the occupation of Iraq, have been as dramatic as any period in Middle East history. Whether it was Louis Heren reporting from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, David Holden covering the Suez crisis, Robert Fisk exposing the horrors of the Sabra and Chatila camp massacres or Richard Beeston’s testimony from Halabja, The Times continues to be a vital presence covering the region’s affairs.

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